Let me get this straight, a carton of cigarettes cost $25. The federal government gets $2.40, Utah state $5.15 (Wyoming $1.20) and then of course $1.50 sales tax. Government gets $ 9, without doing anything. The rest will go to those who actual produce and market the product.
Now the same government is getting billions, as a result of their lawsuit and triumphantly claims that the industries are going to pay. Who are they kidding, the industries will raise the cost of cigarettes to pay for the settlement plus more then likely a hefty administration fee. It is the smoker, who will pay.NO, I AM NOT A SMOKER, but I don't like to receive government services paid for by my addicted fellow man, especially since lung cancer is not caused by nicotine (which causes the addiction) but by the tars and hydrocarbons in the smoke. The same funny molecules that we use to make our roads and pump into our cars. Maybe it is time to study the addiction of raising taxes for services nobody wants.
Or we may want to look for other revenue sources: maybe raise the 4 percent government now charges industries to dump their hazardous and radioactive waste in our deserts or raise the royalties (ranging from 0.5 to 5 percent) of mining the minerals from our Great Salt Lake.
Peter Maier
Stansbury