State should look to beer, alcohol for more revenue

To the editor:

Citizens for a Healthy Missouri has gathered enough signatures for a vote Nov. 5 on a 55-cent tax increase on cigarettes. Supporters are looking to quadruple the state tax on cigarettes.

If voters pass this proposal, many smokers will quit, which is a smart, healthy decision. At our current tax rate, a pack-a-day habit generates $62.05 in state revenue each year. If 10,000 smokers quit, Missouri would lose an estimated $620,500.

At the proposed tax rate, the estimated loss of revenue for those 10,000 would be $2.6 million. Many smokers (myself included) will quit if this new increase comes along.

This proposed tax increase takes advantage of addicts, similar to a drug dealer raising his rates when he knows he has the user hooked.

Tax rates on beer and liquor haven't increased since 1969. The tax on a gallon on beer for distributors is only 6 cents. Citizens for a Healthy Missouri feels smokers are responsible for our rising health-care costs. In 2000, there were 511 alcohol-related deaths on Missouri roads, or 44 percent of 1,157 traffic deaths in state. Figures on domestic violence, barroom brawls, rapes and other behaviors predicated by alcohol use are impossible to determine.

Perhaps it is time for the citizens of Missouri to stop looking to the wallets of smokers to generate revenue for the state. Perhaps it is time for the alcohol distributors to begin paying a little more.

THOMAS ALDREDGE

Oak Ridge