<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD><TITLE></TITLE>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content=text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1>
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2604" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY text=#000000 bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV>David,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I really can't say I agree with you that a cigarette tax is a
regressive tax. That is something you choose to do and is not something like
<U>having</U> to eat. It is probably right that more people smoke on the lower
end of the wage scale but again they choose to. Another reason for a tax on
cigarettes is to give people another reason to quit. I smoked for 40 years and
gave it up about 6 or 7 years ago. It was the hardest thing I have ever done. I
can remember about 20 years ago being in Canada and ran out of cigarettes. I
paid $3.50 for a pack of American cigarettes and all the while thinking just how
stupid it was. On the other end of the scale when I was in the Navy I smoked
Lucky Strikes and paid $0.90 a <U>carton</U> for cigarettes at sea. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I will definitely say that a sales tax is a regressive tax and you are
fortunate in Montana that you don't have one <U>as yet</U>. In some states
they do exempt food and prescription medicine but Idaho does not and that makes
it a more regressive tax. A benefit I enjoy when I come to Montana is that
in some McDonalds I can still get a senior coffee for $0.25. Us old guys like a
bargain!</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I will do some looking at what the CATO people have to say about the
cigarette tax.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Dick Schmidt</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=dave@davebudge.com href="mailto:dave@davebudge.com">David M.
Budge</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=dickschmidt@moscow.com
href="mailto:dickschmidt@moscow.com">Dick Schmidt</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Cc:</B> <A title=vision2020@moscow.com
href="mailto:vision2020@moscow.com">vision2020@moscow.com</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Friday, April 01, 2005 4:49
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [Vision2020] Idaho Is Poorly
Managed by a bunch of Ignorant Republican Farmers</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>Dick, I'll concede that it may be premature to assess the final
impact on tax collections. However, if you're interested, The Cato
Institution has done extensive analysis on the impact of tobacco tax, revenue
collections and black market cigarette sales.. With that I show my
libertarian bias. <BR><BR>As for Montana law, I'm not sure how it's
circumvented, but cigarettes on the S-K reservation are significantly less
than they are off the reservation. Perhaps that has been a consequence
of the reported stockpiling as well. There's no way for me to
know.<BR><BR>Having said that, you did not address my (libertarian) concern
about the regressive nature of the tax. <BR><BR>db<BR><BR>Dick Schmidt
wrote:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE cite=mid001701c536f0$e0c428d0$f9b47e40@yoursz6x6sefxo
type="cite"> </BLOCKQUOTE></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>