April 1, 2009
Op-Ed in New Hampshire Union-Leader Uses Tax Foundation Studies on Cigarette Taxes
"Burning the State's Economy with Higher Tobacco Taxes"
By Charles M. Arlinghaus
The other major failure of cigarette taxes is that they are significantly regressive. Because people in lower-income levels are disproportionately more likely to smoke, they pay a significantly higher proportion of cigarette taxes. The Tax Foundation studied options for raising $35 billion at the federal level and "concluded that a cigarette tax increase hurts the poor more than virtually any other way of raising money to fund State Children's Health Insurance Program expansion."
