I threatened to do it. I warned them that I wouldn't be the only one. They did it anyway. And I did it. And apparently, I'm not the only one.
Most of the time, I really try to keep this blog fairly professional, and to the point. I apologize in advance; they've hit me personally, again, and therefore, this entry is going to be a bit personal.
About 3 days ago, I ran out of cigarettes. After the tax increase, I promised that I would not give any more tax revenue to the state; so I wouldn't be buying more. I 'bummed' 2 cigarettes for that night, and I haven't had one since.
Personal note: It's been about 2 and a half days. It's getting easier. Since I've been smoking for 20 years, there are certain habits and rituals that are a little weird without cigarettes.
It appears, according to the the Louisville Courier-Journal, that I'm not the only one. Since January 1st, tobacco tax revenues are down 6.4%. This means that revenues for farmers, tobacco companies, and tobacco distributors are also down 6.4%. Even with the "mad rush" that happened during the last week of March (to avoid the new taxes), revenues in March were down 2.7%. This means that our Kentucky jobs are at risk!
Government (taxpayer funded) agencies that have been lobbying for these tax increases, as a mechanism to force people to stop smoking, have been applauding the lower tax revenues from smoking, and don't care about the economic impact. Personally, I think we should take the tax revenue losses out of their budgets first -- ACS, ALA, AHA. We'll see how long they applaud when they all lose their jobs.
Yes, it's not just consumers getting the shaft on these new taxes. Stores are being hit, as well. Rumor has it, that stores are trying to eliminate their entire stock of all cigarettes. Why? Because any not sold before April 1st must have the new Federal and State taxes paid on each pack. The stores are having to pay "back taxes" for product they purchased before the taxes went up.
Meanwhile, I gave a speech at a Tea Party yesterday, about The Sin Tax Bait-and-Switch. While my presentation needs a little more energy, and a lot less numbers, a modified version of what I gave yesterday goes like this:
- A pack of Winston lights went up from $2.40/pack to $3.50/pack. $1.61 cents of that is direct taxes. There's also the bulk tobacco warehouse tax, that's a hidden tax applied when farmers sell to the warehouses (before it goes to the tobacco companies). And then there's Social Security, Medicare, etc., for all the employees of the various companies between the farmer and the consumer. This means that the GOVERNMENT (state and federal combined) gets more from a pack a cigarettes, than does the farmer, farm laborers, warehouse, warehouse workers, tobacco company and its employees, the distributor, the store owner, and the guy standing behind the counter selling you the cigarettes. Even if you like these new taxes, can you honestly tell me that the government did MORE to earn that money?
- It's hard to convince people to raise their taxes for a new program. Its easier to expand an existing program (SCHIP) or blame some emergency budget concern (Kentucky). It's then easier to use a modernized version of the old class-warfare trick; targeted taxes. Instead of by income, we are now taxing higher by activities that are deemed "bad for you".
- The problem is, these tax revenue sources are fleeting, and the politicians know it. It's about behavior modification. The Bait and Switch is a 3 step process, which leads to everyone's taxes being raised.
- Step One: Declare emergency, increase sin taxes.
- Step Two: Sin tax revenue usually doesn't ever generate what it's "projected" to initially generate, and it steadily declines each year.
- Step Three: Declare a funding emergency for the program being funded by Sin Taxes, and find "permanent" funding source, aka increase property and/or sales taxes on everyone.
- These taxes will reducing smoking rates. It will hurt the farmers of Kentucky. It will hurt our tobacco companies (Like Brown and Williamson) and more to the point, their employees. And it has and will continue to hurt our stores and their employees. And during these economic times, we don't need to be intentionally hurting our economy.
- And why? For social behavior modification; nothing more, and nothing less.
So by quitting, I'm doing my part to show some of these so-called fiscal conservatives, that were in favor of the sin tax increases, that they just voted to jack up their own taxes in about 3 years. But that's not the only reason.
If you smoke today, I encourage you to stop. Not for the health reasons; we all know those, and you, like I, obviously are aware, but do not care about those reasons. I encourage you to stop smoking to choke (pun intended) the government's supply of money. Money is power. That's fairly well-established. By depriving the government of money, we usurp their power; or more accurately, we prevent them from usurping our power.
If you really don't want to stop, then please, consider going to google.com and typing: indian reservation cigarettes
If you can avoid it, don't give money to the government. It only makes them stronger.
If this message is not what you expected, I apologize. I've been on a bit of a roller-coaster, as far as control of emotions and keeping myself balanced. In the next week or two, we'll see how I'm doing.
Meanwhile, here's a fun recommendation for movie-viewing this week: "Demolition Man"