March 15, 2009
Winston Salem Journal Quotes Tax Foundation Study in Story on Smokeless Tobacco Taxes
"Smokeless Tobacco Target for Tax Increase"
By Richard Craver
But the Tax Foundation, a nonprofit research group, said that special taxes on tobacco products "should exist only if those products impose significant costs on third parties."
"Smokeless tobacco, however, imposes no such harm. Other costs unfairly imposed on society from tobacco consumption have been cited, such as the unattractiveness of witnessing certain behavior associated with chew tobacco, and the message children receive as a result of viewing adult tobacco consumption.
"A government official who merely desires to influence individual consumption decisions because of his own anti-tobacco sentiment cannot be justified by an appeal to principles of sound tax policy," according to the foundation.
