"Go ahead with your silly tax increase," they say, "and I'll find other ways to buy them (or build them) for cheaper!"
When it's all said and done, I suppose Bredsen should be the big loser. Unfortunately, after a bit of research (okay, it's my job to write health stuff every single day), I found out the following:
Smoking cigarettes is the number one cause of PREVENTABLE death in America (http://www.cdc.gov/MMWR/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5114a2.htm).
"In California, decreases in smoking prevalence have resulted in reduced lung cancer and heart disease death rates" (same article)
Smoking causes lung cancer, emphesema, heart disease, stroke, diabetes complications, kidney problems, impotence, bad breath, smelly aura, birth defects (if a pregnant woman smokes), worsened asthma, and the insatiable desire to ride a horse and wear a cowboy hat.
Well, enough of my blabbering, and on with the article!
FROM THE CHATTANOOGAN.COM
Gov. Bredesen: Support The 40-Cent Cigarette Tax Hike - And Reply
posted February 17, 2007
Earlier this week, I stood before the General Assembly for a fifth time as Governor to deliver my State of the State address. My message Monday night was about educating our children - the most fundamental responsibility of state government. At its heart, my proposal challenges each of us - from the student to the teacher to the school to the state - to do things differently in four important ways. We must:
Ensure our children are ready to learn; that they're healthy, that they are intellectually and socially prepared to be in the classroom.
Raise standards and expectations, not just for the college-bound, but for everyone.
Fund education properly and make sure the money goes where it makes a difference - in the classroom itself.
Make college more accessible and affordable.
To make these improvements a reality, I am calling for a 40-cent increase in the cigarette tax - a plan that will raise $219 million annually. The argument for a cigarette tax is straightforward: Our schools need more money.
Already, we have received an enormous amount of positive feedback from folks on both sides of the political aisle and from all areas of the state. But big tobacco companies are already coming out in force against this plan, threatening to do everything in their power to stand in the way of anything that hurts their bottom line - we can't let this happen.
We all talk the talk about improving public education; now we need to walk the walk as well. Our cigarette tax is among the lowest in the nation, and even after such an increase, we will still be well below the national average.
Now, I need your help. Tennessee children need your help. Please contact your legislator and let them know you support our plan to improve education in our state - that you support an increase in the cigarette tax. Urge them to support it, too.
It's an honor to serve as governor of this great state, and I look forward to working with you on this and other important issues in the future.
Warmest Regards,
Phil Bredesen
* * *
Dear Governor,
Go ahead and increase taxes on cigarettes. I'll just start buying them on the Internet as will a large number of other smokers.
Ike Conn
Hixson
ikeconn@yahoo.com
* * *
If tobacco taxes increase, causing the price of cigarettes to go up, I’ll probably still smoke the same amount that I do now. If I start to get really stressed out then I’m going to want a cigarette.
But I’m lucky; it’s never been a problem for me to stop. Some of my friends go through a pack a day and will feel the effect of the price increase.
One of my friends was already noticing how quickly he was losing his money, so he decided that instead of buying a pack a day he would buy cigarette tobacco and roll his own cigarettes. This not only helped him spend less money per cigarette, but the more potent cigarettes allowed him to smoke less than before.
Michael Galik
Cookeville
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