Republican Legislator Says High Cigarette Taxes Are Oppressing Trailer Park Residents

[n2doc]

Rep. Steve Drazkowski (R-Mazeppa) doesn't support a higher minimum wage, wanted to repeal a law requiring local governments to pay women equal money for equal work, and supported mandatory drug tests for welfare recipients.
Try to raise taxes on cigarettes, however, and he transforms into a fierce advocate for the poor.

Yesterday legislators were debating a proposed law (HF 700) that would repeal indexing the cigarette tax rate, making it so cigarette taxes wouldn't automatically rise (or fall, theoretically) each year.

Says the Draz:

"There's a high propensity of people within trailer courts [who are] smokers and I go around and talk to those folks. Not all of them are poor, but the bulk of them are poor. And to see the oppression this tax is placing on them, you hear from those folks, is very, very compelling."

Rep. Carly Melin (D-Hibbing) agreed that high cigarette taxes affect the poor disproportionately, but "the argument that we're sort of protecting poor people by keeping their cigarette taxes low is just a little disingenuous."

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http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2015/02/republican_legislator_says_high_cigarette_taxes_are_oppressing_trailer_park_residents.php

[DetlefK]

1. Makes sense: There are millions of poor smokers, but only thousands of rich smokers.

Up next: Hear him advocate for a sales-tax.

[liberal N proud]

2. The only ones he is worried about is the tobacco companies

[Cha]

3. Or.. in the grand scheme of things it could

be looking out for their HEALTH. Jeeze!

[Turbineguy]

4. He has a point.

The more the poor spend on cigarette taxes, the less they'll have left over to spend on guns to shoot each other with.

[TheBlackAdder]

5. Instead of trying to save them $2-3K a year, and stopping highly radioactive cigarette smoking

amongst his constituents, he's rather keep the addiction going.

Increasing their medical bills, shortening their lives.

===

If anyone needs justification for how bad cigarette smoking is, just look at life insurance policies.

Their primary rate structure, isn't heart conditions, or cancer... it's whether you smoke or not.

They have the numbers, the real actuarial numbers... and those numbers don't lie.