The Daily Tar Heel
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The Daily Tar Heel

Editorial board was errant in view of sin taxes

TO THE EDITOR:



While I agree with the editorial board's view that the N.C. General Assembly should increase taxes to pay for social programs"" I disagree with their view on ""sin taxes.""



Increasing taxes on cigarettes and alcohol is a smart way to both raise revenue and have a healthier population in North Carolina.



If North Carolina increases our historically low cigarette tax by $1" we could raise over $300 million in the first year of the increase and the increased tax could cause a 17 percent decline in youth smoking.



The editorial board argued that taxes on cigarettes and alcohol are naturally regressive but what they failed to mention is that the House finance committee budget also increased the sales tax by a quarter of a cent.



A sales tax increase punishes the poor and increases taxes on essential items like groceries and toiletries.



The sales tax is paid by both the poor and rich and people do not have a choice whether they will buy cereal and toothpaste.



While decreasing use of addictive products can be difficult citizens can decrease their use of wine or spit tobacco" and price increases are incentives to curtail use.



I would much rather pay $3.25 for a bottle of ""three buck chuck"" than see our legislators increase taxes on bread" milk and eggs.




Lee Storrow
Junior
Political Science




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