Virginia Republican House Speaker William Powell on Tuesday criticized a purported plan by the Democratic governor’s to double the tax on cigarettes and said there were better ways for the state to close a widening budget deficit.
“Let’s address the root problem rather than going out and addressing taxes, and especially not addressing taxes in a period of economic uncertainty,” Howell told reporters during a telephone news conference held with Congressman Eric Cantor.
Cantor, also a Republican, said raising cigarette taxes was an “all-out attack … and an assault on jobs here in Virginia and the greater Richmond area.”
Tobacco giant Philip Morris (PM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) is based in Richmond, after relocating there from New York earlier this year.
Gov. Timothy Kaine will propose raising the tax on a pack of cigarettes to 60 cents from 30 cents as part of a broader plan to close the state budget shortfall, the Richmond Times reported on Tuesday.
The governor is also planning to ask for $400 million in cuts from education and healthcare and to seek 1,500 layoffs of state employees and a $500 million withdrawal from the state’s rainy-day fund, the report said.
Kaine is due to outline his proposals to the General Assembly on Wednesday and is expected to estimate the budget deficit at $2.9 billion.
Howell and Cantor argued that a cigarette tax hike would send the wrong signal to other states, which might be more inclined to raise their cigarette taxes. That could lead to job losses in the tobacco industry, especially in Virginia.
A spokesman for the governor said he could neither confirm or deny the report ahead of Kaine’s speech on Wednesday.
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Thanks lawyers….
How about we walk out of the smoky restaurant. It is your choice to eat or work there. If people want to smoke, work in a smoky place, or beat their head on a wall, it is their right. New York is now talking about a tax hike on sodas. Oh? Fatty foods have been attacked as well. How about we all live in a bubble. But wait, we are all going to die. Why are we taking more money? Here it is, redistribution of wealth. Take from the poor and give to the government. I guess a good lawyer and doctor should be able to monitor and document my vitals and every time I read how another freedom is taken away a few days are taken away from life. I think we should ban dumb politicians as they are surely causing high blood pressure. Raising taxes on cigarettes is only going to make poor people poorer. How about we ban smelly perfumes, fatty foods, sugar in cereal, sugar in soft drinks, etc etc. Fact of the matter is second hand smoke smells. Their is still conflicted data on second hand smoke. Is it bad at all? I am sure it is. But, as a corrected FDA report showed, and as the WHO report shows, you are more likely to be killed by lightening than occasional second smoke. Would you want to see a kid sitting in a smoky room 8 hours a day? No. But, would you feed a kid soda and fries every day? You are more likely to die of lung cancer working in allot of other industries than in a smoky restaurant. You can be assured more lives are effected by the alcohol served in these restaurants than the smoke. However, I’m in for the revolution when you touch my alcohol.
I prefer non-smoking sections by the way. I don’t like the smell of it. I also don’t like the smell of old people, and babies. They need a section too. And don’t get me started on people who drag their eating utensils across a plate. They need to eat out back.
This country was not formed to give congress the powers you now ask it. It is disgusting what we have let our government and many of its people do. The “progressives” need to go to New York and California and slowly wilt away with their bloated law books, high taxes, and failed dreams of utopia.
“I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.”
– Thomas Jefferson
“Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare but only those specifically enumerated.”
– Thomas Jefferson
“Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one; for when we suffer or are exposed to the same miseries by a government, which we might expect in a country without government, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer.”
Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776