WWJD? he'd lobby for higher cigarette taxes?!
From the Cincinnati Enquirer (hat tip: Patrick Crowley at N. Ky. Politics)...
A statewide religious organization is trying to generate support for a 70-cent increase in the Kentucky's cigarette tax.
The Rev. Nancy Jo Kemper, executive director of the Lexington-based Kentucky Council of Churches, has emailed her members and asked them to contact legislators, including members of House Democratic leadership, about House Bill 443. The legislation calls for the state's 30 cent a pack cigarette tax to be increased to $1.
Kemper says the increase would reduce smoking in a state that leads the nation in the percent of adults who smoke, 29 percent compared to 21 percent nationally, and help raise money to deal with health problems caused by smoking.
"Kentucky's cigarette tax is lower that five of its seven bordering states and ranks 47th nationally," Kemper said, adding the existing tax "generates only $170 million a year in state revenue, less than five percent of the estimated $3.6 billion in annual smoking-related costs."
posted by Eric Schansberg @ 9:09 PM
1 Comments
1 Comments:
Our state needs some more money to blow.
Although many say that Mike Huckabee's has run a populist campaign with indentity politics, he speaks a lot of truth when he discusses the number one competitor of small business being government. Since I have started my LLC in Kentucky, I have received form after form after form. They are already mailing out the registration forms that are not due until July filing deadline. They want sales tax info, they are giving me retail guides and I hardly retail any product. They have sent me the forms I filled out in August again in triplicate. They are vigilant in their attempts to tax the small business owner. I have an accountant on retainer and thank goodness because I would spend most of my time worrying about these issues.
So it a nutshell they don't need more money but they need a lot more efficiency.
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