NY Smokers Expected To Fill State Budget Gap
by Matt at Mar 31st, 2008
First Governor Paterson said he wanted to avoid raising taxes as he tried to balance the state budget.
Well apparently the legislature isn’t so interested in avoiding tax hikes — they’re already looking at raising the cigarette tax…
Legislative leaders were talking about doubling the cigarette tax to $3 per pack to help the state make ends meet, but hadn’t finalized the amount by Monday afternoon.
A per-pack increase of $1.25 or $1.50 would push the average price of cigarettes over $7 in New York.
Listening to the radio, the most popular defense of raising the cigarette taxes is the resulting deterrent on smoking. But let’s face it, the goal of the tax increase isn’t to discourage smoking as much as it is to help legislators make ends meet in the state budget. But why are smokers expected to bare the brunt of the state’s budget crisis when just over a month ago the legislature was looking into increasing their own pay?
According to the New York Times article the average pay for a state legislator is just over $90,000, which is a huge salary when you consider the fact the legislature is only in regular session 63 days a year. The average salary in New York State is $47,330… Perhaps legislators should take a pay cut by making a typical salary before they start raising the taxes on people who can’t vote to increase their own pay.
UPDATE: At least Republicans legislators opposed the pay raise…
