TAX: Nonsmokers should share burden

In reading the writings of proponents of raising tobacco taxes, I have a different perspective. Over many decades, tobacco taxes have funded highways, bridges, parks and more. Nonsmokers have gotten a free ride, and now want more from a segment of our society.

With the current cost of more than $45 a carton for cigarettes, the argument that the cheap price encourages young people to smoke is ridiculous. With these prices there are far fewer smokers than there were 10 years ago, and the numbers are declining. The raise the tax people have been cooking their golden goose.

Without the elitist rhetoric, what they are saying is plain. We are going to reach into the smokers’ wallets for additional money to continue paying their share of taxes for services they also use, because of moral superiority and self-serving parasitic agendas. How many zealots have used the claim of (I know what’s best for you) in history, and how many were socialists?

RAY L. FINK

Santa