The Gantt Report
By Lucius Gantt
Are Florida’s State Senators and Representatives proposing legislation that opposes and contradicts the revenue philosophies of African American’s beloved President Barack Obama?
President Obama has stated emphatically that he feels America’s rich and wealthy citizens should pay higher taxes and increased taxes should not be a burden that the poor and working poor should carry.
Most tobacco users in Florida are not wealthy but that isn’t stopping the Florida Legislature from proposing an increase of the state’s excise tax on a pack of cigarettes from 33.9 cents to $1. The proposed tax increase would be in addition to the 62 cents per pack tax recently imposed by the federal government.
There is no denying that too much smoking can be harmful to one’s health but smokers should not pay to finance the health care of people that eat too many hamburgers and become obese or to finance the health care for people that lay in the sun too long and get skin cancer.
Tax proponents can be real tricky sometimes. It’s easy to tax poor people that don’t have high paid lobbyists. It’s easy to levy a tax on something you don’t do.
But it’s very difficult to tax activities and events that legislators love to take part in.
Tallahassee has events every day during the legislative session where liquor is served and alcoholics will ultimately have health problems along with the millions of people killed or injured after being struck by drunk drivers but legislators will never increase taxes on liquor by a dollar a fifth or tax beer an extra dollar a can. They will never tax red meat or fast foods even though they both can cause health problems.
Many lower income Floridians smoke for a variety of reasons. Some say that use of tobacco products reduce their stress levels. A lot of people began smoking while incarcerated or in the military.
The proposed Florida cigarette tax increases are considered “regressive” because poorer people in the Sunshine State are more likely to smoke than upper-income taxpayers. The taxes on cigarettes would be the same for the poor making less than $25,000 a year or unemployed as it would be for the millionaires making $25,000 per day.
Why is the cigarette tax an issue for me? Well, my readers probably don’t know it but I occasionally have a smoke. I seldom if ever smoke in public, I never smoke when working and I never smoke in the homes of people or around people that don’t smoke.
But I will light up a cigar after a game of golf or enjoy a Cohiba when I’m on a Caribbean vacation. My favorite cigarette to use in the comfort of my own is the type that I roll myself.
When asked about the cigarette tax many legislators say the tax is needed to “balance the budget”. That claim is suspicious because revenue dollars raised by tax increases is usually spent by politicians faster than the tax money is collected.
When economic times get hard for individuals, families and businesses they usually first cut expenditures. No one seeks to first force the poorest to pay more to take care of the richest in our cities, counties and neighborhoods.
If a cigarette tax is what the people of Florida desire, hopefully the legislature will insure that the tax will be fair and not disproportionately impact the Florida citizens that smoke and are unemployed, poor or otherwise unable to afford smoking cessation products or medical care that get them to lessen or discontinue their use of tobacco products.
A tax on tobacco products will impact me but perhaps not as much as people that smoke a great deal. I think legislators should consider taxing other products that can cause health problems.
I’m in excellent physical shape for my age. I don’t drink alcohol excessively, I don’t eat a lot of red meat or fried food, I don’t use a great deal of sugar or salt and I don’t drink too many red, blue, yellow and green sodas. A tax on these products won’t hurt me at all.
Florida’s legislators should support President Obama’s economic recovery ideas and tax the rich and what they do more than they tax the impoverished and the things done by Florida’s working poor.
When unfair or bad legislation is proposed, oftentimes the impact will be far worse on the least fortunate African American and other citizens in Florida. I encourage the readers of this column to contact their elected officials about the proposed cigarette tax and other proposals that affect our people and our communities.
The most visible African American effort to oppose the proposed cigarette tax is headed by Jacksonville resident Mark Davis with Working Floridians Against Cigarette Tax. This organization is distributing much of the information about the tax issue and its impact on Black people and Davis has contributed some of the tax facts mentioned in this column.
I’m usually opposed to new taxes in general, but here I have to make an exception. Smokers impose a cost on the public – through publicly funded health care for smoking-related ailments and collection of disability payments.
While consumers of alcohol do impose some of the same costs, it would be hard to make the argument that the average alcohol consumer imposes the same costs as the average smoker.