Estimate: Higher tobacco tax in Georgia could raise $585M

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by bellhead

I posted about it 3 years ago, they literally could raise sin taxes and by doing this they could completely eliminate all state income and inventory taxes. The impact would make us one of the most tax friendly states to do business in.

Ideally I would like to see sin taxes the highest in the country as the products are a negative anyway to the population. I drink socially but don't smoke and wouldn't have a problem paying them in order to get education, transportation, and health care funding levels up.

As far as public transportation, Obama has started the conversation about taxing the foreign earnings of corporations to pay for infrastructure. Our elected politicians need to band together to get the biggest cut of the pie as possible. Metro Atlanta alone needs about 25 billion in funding to get Marta expanded and deal with the other major problems up there. The smaller cities and rural areas need to see this and act accord-ling as Metro Atlanta is the big dog for generating tax revenue and the rest of us are fleas. When the dog got sick in 2008 with the downturn in the economy the whole state caught cancer, tax revenues are still not back all the way. The state needs metro Atlanta growing and prospering in order for the rest of us to prosper as well.

A 2 trillion dollar infrastructure package over 5 years would go a long way to fixing what ails our roads and bridges right now.

MARTA can only expand within those counties that pay the 1% sales tax, so current proposed, shovel ready projects would be I-20 east extension, Red Line north extension, Clifton Corridor, and Clayton County high capacity line.
I would also like to see the CoA streetcar network built out.

[bellhead]

Those areas if Marta expands will see explosive growth, vs. areas who don't go that with Marta expansions.

Americans want to live close to a mass transit option to take them into the CBD, DC just opened their first new lines in several years and ridership is off to a really good start.

Metro - About Metro - News - Silver Line ridership off to solid start

Metro says Silver Line ridership is strong - The Washington Post

The real proof will be to compare housing prices before and after over the next 5 to 10 years to see if it really does matter. Which it does.

[bellhead]

Originally Posted by Gulch

Kind of like how the first trillion-dollar one in 2009 did a lot of good.

/s

Outside of a few supply sided economist's most economists have agreed it wasn't a big enough stimulus.

Economist: Obama Stimulus Not Enough - CBS News

Of course you can find a right wing quote from some supply sided guys who's trickle down theory over the last 30 plus years hasn't worked...

[bryantm3]

as big of a transit proponent as i am, i don't think the tobacco tax revenues should be used to fund transit. it's not right to put the burden of transit only on those who choose to smoke— an action which is still legal in this country. transit initiatives should be funded by those who use roads or transit, or through the general budget.

however, i would support an initiative to raise the cigarette tax if it were to fund universal healthcare in georgia, which nathan deal has repeatedly blocked.

[bellhead]

Originally Posted by bryantm3

as big of a transit proponent as i am, i don't think the tobacco tax revenues should be used to fund transit. it's not right to put the burden of transit only on those who choose to smoke— an action which is still legal in this country. transit initiatives should be funded by those who use roads or transit, or through the general budget.

however, i would support an initiative to raise the cigarette tax if it were to fund universal healthcare in georgia, which nathan deal has repeatedly blocked.

But it's ok to divert health care money to care for their multiple health care problems which come from smoking. Both of my parents died from problems directly related to smoking. My mom battled copd the last 5 years of her life and it wasn't a good death.

The problem is smokers consume a higher % of health care dollars than non-smokers do, so why shouldn't they pay higher overall taxes on their habits.

[magnetar]

I wonder if a tax on soda would poll as favorably with this crowd? I'm guessing not.

I'd support a tax on golf carts.