CARLTON FLETCHER: Legislators, stop hiding behind ‘no-tax’ dodge and target big tobacco

“Now turn away, ‘Cause I’m awful just to see. ‘Cause all my hair’s abandoned all my body, All my agony.”

— My Chemical Romance

With businesses — minus grocery stores, pharmacies and a few other “necessary” establishments like liquor stores — all but shut down for several weeks due to the coronavirus pandemic, it was inevitable that Georgia’s once booming economy would take a dramatic hit.

Now that the first month of virus-impacted economic numbers have come in, that hit was even more severe than many had imagined, losses of more than $1 billion in year-over-year tax collections.

With the state General Assembly set to return to Atlanta for the wrap-up of the 2020 legislative session some time next month, leaders have already begun the process of looking for 14% across-the-board cuts ordered by Gov. Brian Kemp in an attempt to lessen the financial impact that is projected to be somewhere between $3 billion and $4 billion … provided there is not a significant spike in virus cases as many have predicted now that businesses are re-opening.

Many legislators have rightly expressed concern over the economic disaster that the pandemic has wrought, and they’ve wondered aloud how they’re going to manage to bring in a balanced budget without digging deeply into the state’s $2.8 billion reserve fund. Several, in fact — judging by their comments — seem content to just use the reserves and move on, hoping for a better day down the road.

Which is as alarming as it is ridiculous.

Rather than finding the easy way out, lawmakers should start looking for ways to not only cut spending, as the 14% reductions will do, but they should be looking for logical ways to bring in new revenue. One of those ways has been staring them in the face for years, but they’ve chosen to turn their heads in another direction. As thousands of Georgians die each year from heart and cardiovascular-related illness, cancer and other diseases exacerbated by smoking and use of other tobacco products, legislators have steadfastly refused to up the tax on cigarette consumption, which is third-lowest in the nation.

Georgia’s tax on cigarettes is 37 cents per pack, an amount higher only than such taxes in Virginia and Missouri. The American Cancer Society, noting the relationship between smoking in the state and health risks worsened by smoking, is encouraging legislators to raise the tax by $1.50 per pack, an amount that would bring in an estimated $425 million-plus in revenue a year.

State Rep. Brett Harrell, a Snellville Republican who is chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said such a huge increase in the cigarette tax would unfairly single out one product. Harrell has said he supports maybe raising the tax to 62 cents per pack, which would make Georgia’s tax comparable to those in surrounding states and generate about $50 million a year in revenue.

Republican lawmakers, who are in the majority in the General Assembly have, for some reason, fought raising taxes on tobacco products, insisting their reasoning has to do with their aversion to new taxes. More than a few observers have speculated, though, that the lawmakers’ aversion to tacking on taxes to deadly tobacco products has more to do with payouts from tobacco companies and farm groups than it does the sense of self-righteousness these lawmakers hide behind on such occasions.

The CDC says smoking is directly responsible for 480,000 deaths in America each year, one in five deaths in the country. Smoking-related deaths are the most preventable deaths in the country, according to the CDC, and the filthy habit cuts the life expectancy of the average smoker by 10 years.

How can a body whose supposed purpose is to protect its members’ constituents — often from themselves — justify not taxing tobacco products sufficiently enough to help with the state’s economic shortfall and at the same time curtailing the habit — and stopping many from ever starting and getting addicted to the deadly product — that brings much more devastation and is more costly than any virus or other enemy we face on a daily basis?

You elected officials say you want to do right by the state of Georgia? If you’re willing to stop pocketing the funds handed out by the industry’s deep-pocketed goons, here’s a simple answer. Quit hiding behind the “no new taxes” dodge and tax deadly tobacco products out of existence.