Rather than being a drain on federal and state budgets, smokers are net contributors. Based on pre-Prop. 10 tax rates, Harvard Law School economist Kip Viscusi calculates that California smokers subsidize the state to the tune of 18 cents on every pack of cigarettes they buy. The federal excise tax on cigarettes rose 10 cents this year and will go up by another nickel in 2002. Enough is enough. Federal and state governments collect billions in taxes every year from smokers and save billions in Medicare and Social Security payments.
Smoking imposes no costs on the nation's taxpayers that go uncompensated.
The contention that Prop. 10's 50 cents tax is necessary to recover such costs is simply wrong.