Posted on 06/06/2012 9:32:04 PM PDT by Duke C.
Asking voters to slap a $1-per-pack tax on cigarettes to fund cancer research seems like a cinch in health-crazy California, where lighting up already is banned in bars, public buildings and on many of its golden beaches.
But the tobacco tax, pitched to voters under Proposition 29 in Tuesday's primary, teetered on the brink of defeat Wednesday just months after opinion polls showed widespread support. The measure was trailing by about 63,000 votes, although still-uncounted ballots could number as high as 1 million, by some estimates.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Next year. (And there will eventually be a next year)
The spin is that tobacco money won the election, but the only ads that I can remember were for the proposition. Where did big tobacco spend their money if I don’t remember their ads?
Agreed.
What’s next year?
The Soda Tax?
The Freedom tax?
CA will pass it next year, and the people who don’t pay shit, voted for a bunch of 1/2 cent sales taxes throughout most cities and major towns; they think mom, pop and baby will not feel the pain. Most of CA is full of hopeless brain-deficient progressives, and the only reason the smoking tax is so close is because of the above progressive, dirty-locked hippie class who still domimate, although they are getting pretty scary, those saggy titted hippies and their saggy balled counterparts, hanging out with no clothes on in SFranscico squares are “The People” thinking they matter anymore. California is so lost.
“Where did big tobacco spend their money if I don’t remember their ads?”
I don’t smoke, never have. Smoking killed my father. It is a very bad habit. That said, this Prop WAS a smokescreen to get millions more of the taxpayers money and use it on anything but what the initiative said it was for. It looks as though enough people are actually reading this crap before they vote. Just the piece about “administrative costs” sunk it for me. We simply don’t need more bureaucrats or out of work college professors (or students) to “manage” the money that would have been collected.
That one I would have voted for!
Man, that is some crude language, this isn’t the local bar.
I would have thought Prop 29 would easily pass, so I'm a little surprised how effective the anti-29 campaign was to get it as narrow as it is.
Californians are subjected to endless tax increases and bond proposals and fee increases of every description. All, every one of these items is nothing more or less than the state gov’ts’ efforts to top off CALPERs or CALSters pensions funds.
Depsite the contra advertising by the tobaccco companies, which was fairly effective, personally, I believe the tide was turned on this proposition when the news came out that the state had been collecting fees for custom 9/11 license plates (and their annual renewals) which were supposed to pay for scholarships for 9/11 survivors, yet had stopped the program, and was still collecting the feeds for the custom plates and just dumping the money into the general fund.
That pissed off a lot of people, justifiably so, and dramatically illustrated what a complete fraud the state gov’t of CA is.
Not a smoker myself, but I have nothing against smokers, or smoking. This tax is insane. Even if I did have something against smokers, this tax would still be insane.
People need to get it through their thick skulls that passing this type of crap merely allows the state to borrow another 10-15 billion dollars against the forcasted revenue stream.
Starve the politicians out.
I had a conversation with one on those SF freaks the other day, it is almost hard to stomach a former European who rails about “cutting school funding” “the 1%” and “tax breaks for the rich.”
I asked her what the average CA public employee pension was, she said, I dunno, maybe $50K a year, I said, OK, what would you have to make to get $50K a year in retirement at a 5% return?
She stammered and said, “Not sure”, I said “$1,000,000” so every librarian, postal worker, teacher and state bureucrat is one of the 1%.
She took her Chardonnay and left.
I laughed.
Taxes! Taxes! Taxes! More taxes!
The endless refrain of incompetent and dishonest politicians seeking to purchase votes from an endless variety of interest groups.
Maybe some of these corrupt pols should learn what every household in America knows - you have to lower your expenses to live within your means.
In the real world, those who put a gun to the head of the neighbors and take what doesn’t belong to them are called thieves and put in jail; in politics, on the other hand, such characters are rewarded with another term in office sucking away at the public teat.
Tobacco and alcohol are generally easy targets for taxes as politicians have long considered them “sin taxes”. The only problem now is that sin taxes are leaking out into the mainstream, attacking our snack foods, cars, and overall freedom of choice. If they want to use “sin taxes”, are there no greater sins in California begging to be taxed?
I found the opposite on local radio — lots of ads against it and few if any in favor.
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