Cig tax increase cliffhanger

Update: Prop. 29 lost.

June 5, 2012

By John Seiler

Looks like we might not know until late tonight whether poor smokers will be taxed into penury by Proposition 29, the $735 million tax increase for wealthy cancer “charities.”  As of 9 pm, it’s winning with 51.3 percent of the vote, but only 10 percent of the precincts counted.

Of course, Prop. 29 was sold as an attack on evil Big Tobacco. But given that mainly poor people smoke now, it would hit them the hardest. The money would go to well-funded cancer and other “charities” that really are just robbers. Isn’t “charity” supposed to be voluntary?

As former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown also noted, the tax increase, assuming it passes, would create a bigger black market, which means more crime in poor areas. Do you think cigarette gangs will be shooting up the gated communities where the “charity” executives and fat-cat scientists live?

Maybe it still will lose.