Maryland's Health Police Are After Us, Again

from the Baltimore Sun

The same group that successfully pushed to double the state's cigarette tax in 2007 wants the General Assembly to add another dollar per pack next session.

Health Care For All, led by Annapolis stalwart Vinnie DeMarco, kicked off his push at a news conference in Annapolis today. "It works. It is good politics and good policy," DeMarco said. "We need the money for health care"

The change would increase the state's cigarette tax from $2 per pack to $3, and bring the average price to $7.29. The change would mean Maryland would have the 6th highest cigarette tax in the country, according to DeMarco. Now Maryland has the 11th highest cigarette tax.

DeMarco said the 2007 tax increase has raised $120 million a year while also contributing to reducing smoking in the state. Roughly 276 million packs were sold in Maryland in 2007. The following year, purchases dropped to 202 million, according to the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids.

The increased tax revenue, he said, should be used for health care related costs like paying for Maryland's new health care exchanges, market places for health insurance required by President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act.

Raquel Guillory, a spokeswoman for Gov. Martin O'Malley, said the governor is awaiting recommendations from a committee formed earlier this year to determine funding sources for the health exchanges. The governor, she said, "will evaluate the possibilities once those recommendations are made."

The proposal will encounter resistance from some corners of the state house. House GOP leader Del. Anthony O’Donnell predicted there would be “zero” support for the tax in his 43 member caucus. “If we keep raising taxes we’ll never institute the fiscal restraint we need,” he said. “There will be another tax after this one, and another tax after that one.”

Why don't we have an abortion tax? Or make "gamblers" buy a "casino seat license? How about a "Lotto purchase permit"?

There are LOTS of things that are bad for my health, but few as "profitable" to the Nanny State Legislature as cigarette taxes.