It’s not easy making budget decisions in the GA Legislature this year. The days of abundant revenues are gone, at least temporarily. Republicans who were elected on promises of making government smaller and more efficient are actually being held accountable for doing just that. Both parties’ members are prevented from imparting the state’s largesse on his/her district. The bureaucrats running state agencies aren’t happy either. And, as usual, the Board of Regents is offended at the very idea that their funding might be subject to the same economic forces that affect everyone else in the state – after all, they’re in this “for the children.”

So, what’s a legislator to do? Did I hear those “smaller, more efficient government” Republicans say “raise taxes?” From private health plans, to cigarettes, to any number of fees (some of which really are fees and others, taxes), Republicans and Democrats are desperately searching for new revenue sources.

Health plans and hospital taxes proved most unpopular in the public opinion, so they’re likely out. Good start. But who could be taxed without so much public outcry? The smokers.

Who are the smokers? Disproportionately, they are from the lower economic end of the spectrum. A recent Tax Foundation study found that the burden of the existing federal cigarette excise tax is 7.5 times greater on the bottom income quintile than on the top. An additional $1 per pack state cigarette tax would be no different.

Furthermore, additional cigarette taxes would burden poor GA communities in favor of wealthier areas. "Because tobacco tax revenue in Georgia goes into the state's general fund, providing benefits to residents in the same proportions as other general fund money, we know that the cigarette tax transfers funds from areas with high smoking rates to those with low smoking rates," said Tax Foundation Chief Economist Patrick Fleenor, in his report. "The areas in Georgia with the highest smoking rates, such as the Northwest and North Georgia health districts, have lower-than-average incomes, while the areas with the lowest smoking rates, such as the Cobb-Douglas and Fulton health districts, have high average incomes."

An increase in the cigarette tax will certainly lead to border crossing buys and outright smuggling. As a coworker explained to a friend, “My wife and I go regularly to North Carolina to buy cigarettes for ourselves and our friends – we each get the legal limit every time we go- 299 cartons.” Organized crime benefits, too. They’re not worried about the legal limit.

But the worst thing about raising the cigarette tax is that it puts the focus on raising taxes rather than cutting expenses. We’ve heard wailing from the Gold Dome for a year now about how they’ve cut every possible expense, only to discover last Fall that they were financing ACORN with tax dollars. Most agencies have now cut back their budgets somewhat responsibly. All agencies should be subject to periodic review, with the possibility of eliminating some and combining others (HB 236). Now it’s time to touch the untouchable – Medicaid and education. That’s another article for another day. But particularly in these lean times, cutting every bit of waste of taxpayer dollars is a desirable and admirable goal for GA government.