House Republicans have given senators a proposal: increase the cigarette tax.
According to the American Lung Association, a 10% price increase on cigarettes reduces consumption by 4% among adults and 7% among youth.
This, as the CDC says more than 17 percent of adult Hoosiers smoke – the eighth-highest rate in the country.
Senate Republicans have resisted cigarette tax increases in the past, but they’ve moved a bill out of the committee on a 21-3 vote.
The Goshen News reports Indiana’s current 99.5-cents-per-pack tax is the 39th-lowest in the nation and hasn’t been increased since 2007.
I don’t smoke cigarettes, but I think the cigarette tax (a legal product) should be the sales tax. Sin taxes are a poor way for a nanny state to try and manipulate personal behavior.