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Excise Taxes and Taxing the Poor

• Obama's Health Insurance Tax: Coming Soon to all Policies

  [The Hill's Pundits Blog, September 28, 2009] Sen. Baucus's (D-Mont.) health care bill provides for a tax on "gold-plated" health insurance policies. But, as with the Alternative Minimum Tax, once slated to be imposed only on the wealthy, inflation will make most Americans liable to pay the 40 percent tax in a few years.

• Reasons not to Raise Tobacco Taxes

  [Heartland Institute, September 15, 2009] Smokers have become a favorite target of many legislators across the country. Some policymakers seem to think taxing smokers is a win-win way to curb smoking and raise revenue, without hurting the economy. In practice, however, these taxes create more budget problems than they solve.

• Tax-Free Liquor Lures Buyers, Stirring Cross-Border Tensions

  [Wall Street Journal, September 9, 2009] On Interstate 95, just past the Massachusetts border, a big red barn full of tax-free liquor has helped New Hampshire turn itself into a booze-sales machine.

• Seattle's Bag Tax

  [Washington Policy Center, July 2009] On April 2, 2008 Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels and Council President Richard Conlin announced their proposal to adopt a 20-cent fee for each disposable paper or plastic shopping bag used in the city. Implementation of the measure was delayed, however, when opponents gathered enough signatures to put the ordinance to a public vote.

• Tangled Web

  [Investor's Business Daily, June 5, 2009] Never content with their share of other people's money, lawmakers are renewing the campaign to tax Internet sales, thereby adding to the burden of an overtaxed nation as it tries to pull out of recession.

• Cigarette Tax Burnout

  [The Wall Street Journal, August 11, 2008] Maryland is only the latest state to prove the folly of trying to finance government with a tax on a shrinking pool of smokers.

• Savoring Bargains at the American Pump

  [The New York Times, June 29, 2008] The chief reason for the disparity [of gas] with the high-priced nations is taxation. Take away the taxes, and the remaining gas price is similar from place to place. Americans pay, on average, 49 cents per gallon in gasoline taxes, according to the Lundberg Survey released last week. That includes federal, state and local charges.

• NY Health Official: Higher Tax Helps Smokers Quit

  [Associated Press, June 16, 2008] Audrey Silk, who heads NYC Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment, said the initial increase in quitline calls doesn't realistically represent how many people will become nonsmokers. "No matter the goal, it's disgusting that any group would actually boast that coercive government, this time through the hammer of taxation, to beat a class of society enjoying a legal product into submission is 'successful'," Silk said.

• Gas Taxes Set To Rise In Some States

  [The Associated Press, June 8, 2008] All of the talk among political candidates about a federal gas tax holiday to offset soaring prices at the pump misses a critical fact: state taxes are, for the most part, even more costly for drivers.

• California Won't Walk Talk On Climate Change

  [Detriot News, February 14, 2008] Despite all the talk about climate change, there is no groundswell for a gas tax hike -- which most economists agree is the fastest way to get drivers to drive less and buy more fuel-efficient vehicles -- in California, where even the nation's greenest electorate recoils at the idea of putting its money where its mouth is.

• People's Time Is Too Precious To

  [Dallas Morning News, January 22, 2008] With world crude oil prices hovering near $100 per barrel and cost at the gas pump exceeding $3 per gallon, all the ingredients would seem to be in place for dramatic changes in our daily commuting patterns, with millions of Americans shifting from private cars to public transit.

• States Spend Anti-smoking On Everything But Smoking

  [USA Today, January 11, 2008] States are spending their tobacco settlement money on everything from building schools to cutting taxes -- everything, that is, but smoking prevention.

• Eliminate The Federal Gas Tax

  [Townhall.com, December 4, 2007] The 18.4 cents a gallon federal gas tax is perhaps the single worst influence on the development of rational transportation policies in the United States, and it should be eliminated.

• Hidden Taxes Are Easier To Raise

  [NBER Digest, November 2007] Drivers who pay a toll electronically don't notice price hikes as readily as manual-toll users do. So public resistance to toll increases lessens as more and more drivers pay electronically.

• Repairing Bridges Without Raising Gas Taxes

  [NCPA, October 18, 2007] To protect poorer American citizens as they struggle to make ends meet, Congress should end pork-barrel projects and earmarks, and devote the monies in the Highway Trust Fund to critical infrastructure repair and expansion.

• Renewable Stealth Tax

  [Wall Street Journal, October 27, 2007] Democrats in Congress are considering a House energy bill that undermines energy independence by raising taxes on domestic production.

• Canada's Tax Lab

  [Investor's Business Daily, October 3, 2007] Eventually, the mad science of carbon taxation will put a drag on Quebec's economy. Because the energy sources being taxed are inputs across the economy, the prices of consumer goods are bound to rise.

• State Lawmakers Burden The Poor

  [Republican American, September 12, 2007] Keeping fuel taxes at record levels and raising cigarette taxes to $2 a pack only worsened the pain the government inflicts on low-income people by robbing them of more of their money as they robbed them of their economic independence with government handouts.

• Expanding Schip Will Challenge State Finances

  [Heritage Foundation, August 14, 2007] The House and Senate recently decided to reauthorize the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), but both bills rely on increasing the federal tobacco tax which could cause states to lose revenue.

• Smoking Declines As Taxes Increase

  [USA Today, August 10, 2007] As Congress weighs the biggest federal cigarette tax hike in history, an analysis finds that higher state taxes on smokers have produced sharp declines in smoking.

• Bridge Collapse Could Fuel Higher Gas Taxes

  [Memphis Commercial Appeal, August 8, 2007] The Minneapolis bridge disaster that suddenly symbolizes the nation's crumbling infrastructure could tip the scales in favor of higher gasoline taxes for needed repairs coast to coast.

• Tax Pariahs: Oil, Gas, and Adult Movies

  [American Entreprise Institute, June 27, 2007] What do oil and natural gas have in common with adult movies? If congressional Democrats have their way, more than you might think.

• Cigarmakers in a Panic

  [St. Petersburg Times, July 17, 2007] As part of an increase in tobacco taxes designed to pay for children's health insurance, the nickel-per-cigar tax that has ruled the industry could rise by as much as 20,000 percent.

• Sales Tax, Sin Levies On The Rise

  [Arizona Republic/CCH Inc., July 10, 2007] According to a midyear survey of state consumption taxes, don't drive in Washington state or Pennsylvania, take up smoking in New Jersey or try to buy much of anything in Rhode Island.

• Most States Hold Line On Gas, Sales Tax

  [Forbes, July 5, 2007] In general, states across the nation haven't raised gas taxes in the past year, but unfortunately, generalities don't always offer solace.

• Taxing the Poor

  [NCPA, June 2007] The income tax is highly progressive. It takes a higher portion of the income of the rich than the poor. But federal, state and local governments raise revenues in a number of ways that are regressive, taking a greater portion of the incomes of the poor than the rich. In some cases, the total dollar amounts paid by the poor are higher than the amounts paid by the rich

• Don't Raise Gas Tax Without Reforms

  [Cato Institute, March 14, 2007] The value of gas tax revenue has fallen over the years because of inflation and improved vehicle gas mileage. So, we're paying less for road maintenance in real terms per each roadway-damaging vehicle mile that we drive.

• Cigarette Tax Habit May Kick States

  [Associated Press/Lawrence Jounral-World, February 16, 2007] Across the country, states are putting their treasuries under pressure by adopting smoking restrictions as well as higher cigarette taxes, which appear to discourage people from lighting up.

• Tax Increases Under Doyle's Budget May Hit Many People

  [Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter/Winona Daily News, February 14, 2007] Buying a gun, getting a shirt cleaned, downloading a song off the Internet, driving a car and smoking a cigarette would all cost more under Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle's budget.

• Fat Taxes Are the Wrong Prescription

  [Tax Foundation, November 11, 2006] The American Medical Association is now aiming to pressure federal, state and local lawmakers to pass new taxes on sweetened beverages, including regular carbonated soda like Coke, sports drinks like Gatorade, and most sugar-sweetened juices.

• Taxing the Internet

  [Heartland Institute, December 1, 2006] Competition is the key to healthy state and local economies, but the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement -- which was created to push Congress to tax the Internet -- threatens states' autonomy to shape their own tax policies, costs each state's economy jobs and devastates their technology sectors.

• Sticking it to Smokers

  [Reason, September 25, 2006] Proposition 86 takes the debate over tobacco taxes to a new extreme, proposing an unprecedented 300 percent tax increase, from the 87-cent per pack tax level established in 1998 by Proposition 10, to $3.47 per pack—3.5 times the national average.

• What is Proper Tax Policy for Smokeless Tobacco Products?

  [Tax Foundation, September 22, 2006] Even though the federal government taxes smokeless tobacco at a per unit rate based upon weight, most states tax it based upon the sale price.

• Big Tobacco's Showdown in the West

  [NewsWeek, September 15, 2006] California is poised to enact the largest one-time cigarette tax hike ever -- adding $2.60 per pack -- bringing the average price for a pack of cigarettes to $6.55.

• Fatty Foods Tax

  [Arizona Daily Star, September 6, 2006] Health-conscious groups like the American Medical Association and the Center for Science in the Public Interest want to heap higher taxes on sodas and fatty snacks to encourage people to eat better and generate money for health promotion campaigns.

• Rhode Island Enacts Pro-Taxpayer Reform Package

  [Heartland Institute, August 2006] Rhode Islanders now have an optional flat-rate income tax, tighter caps on property taxes, the eventual elimination of an automobile excise tax, lower capital gains taxes, and controls on growth in education spending.

• Reducing the State Tax Burden

  [CNS News and Americans for Tax Reform, August 16, 2006] State tax policy has undergone a fundamental transition over the past 25 years as lawmakers have faced changing state economies and taxes have become a major campaign issue.

• Make "No New Cell Phone Taxes" A Reality

  [National Taxpayers Union, August 16, 2006] New telecommunications technologies require a sweeping away of outdated regulations in favor of a streamlined process. However, extortionist state and local governments are trying to throw a wrench in the process.

• Chicago Taxes Its Way To Highest Gas Prices

  [Chicago Sun-Times, August 15, 2006] Gas prices hit a record high in the month of August, with Chicago leading the way.

• Ending the Poor Tax

  [Brookings Institution, July 2006] Lower-income families in the United States tend to pay more for the same consumer products than families with higher incomes, says Matt Fellowes, author of a new study by the Brookings Institution.

• Federal Excise Tax Collections, 1940-2006

  [Tax Foundation, April 28, 2006]The Tax Foundation's assessment of federal excise tax collections from 1940 to 2006.

• State Sales, Gasoline, Cigarette and Alcohol Tax Rates by State, 2005

  [Tax Foundation, February 24, 2006] Tax Foundation's assessment of state sales, gasoline, cigarette and alcohol tax rates by state in 2005.

• Adios to a Phone Tax

  [Wall Street Journal, May 30, 2006] Treasury Secretary John Snow says the Internal Revenue Service will no longer collect the 3 percent federal excise tax on long-distance phone calls and will offer refunds for the past three years.

• State Excise Taxation: Horse-and-Buggy Taxes In an Electronic Age

  [Tax Foundation, May 2005] Selective excise taxes are already obsolete, but because government is always slow to change, they will die a slow death. In the meantime they will cause a great deal of harm, both to taxpayers and to the state governments who use them most.

• The Case against Oil Price Controls and Windfall Profit Taxes

  [Cato Institute, January 12, 2006] The recent rise in gasoline prices has led many observers to call for government price controls and special taxes on oil companies. Yet policies that restrain prices result in less supply and conservation.

• Cigarette Smuggling

  [NCPA Brief Analysis #423, October 30, 2002] Diverse state tobacco taxes are a key reason for cigarette smuggling, in which organized crime and terrorist groups increasingly are involved.

• Governors and State Legislatures look to Excise Tax for More Revenue

  [Tax Foundation, December 15, 2002] Cross-border shopping by beer and cigarette buyers highlights tax competition.

• Sales Tax Deduction Would Subsidize Bigger Government, Undermine Tax Reform

  [Heritage Foundation, June 9, 2004] This report critiques a House proposal to create a federal tax deduction for state and local sales tax.