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This Shouldn’t Surprise You.

Monday, February 24th, 2003

Those states most vigilantly anti-tobacco have begun spending tobacco settlement money on…golf carts…and dump trucks….and public television, and not on prevention programs, as promised.

Two reasons for this:

1) Despite budget shortfalls, states have not only refused to cut spending, they’ve actually increased hires and government programs. Thus, they’re forced to divert settlement money to programs supported by interests with more political clout than, for example, the American Cancer Society.

2) States have become dependent on the revenue generated by tobacco taxes (taxes disproportionately paid by the poor, by the way). Therefore, they really don’t want to stop you from smoking. Because if everyone quit smoking, all that cancer-causing revenue would dry up. No more golf carts, no more dump trucks. Mark my words: If the day comes when the last trial lawyer forces the last tobacco company into bankrupcy, you’ll see state goverments get into the business of making cigarettes.

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This entry was posted on Monday, February 24th, 2003 at 6:05 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

5 Responses to “This Shouldn’t Surprise You.”

  1. #1 |  Garrett Soden |  February 24th, 2003 at 8:32 pm

    This doesn’t surprise me. It reminds me of time I spent as an employee of a non-profit agency that promoted carpooling and public transportation in Los Angeles. All employees were urged to vote for a .5% sales tax increase which was GUARANTEED to go to the construction of public transportation: specifically, commuter rail. As soon as the tax increase passed, the agency I worked for submitted a proposal to grab some of the newly-available funds - to create a newsletter that would encourage people to ride. Not exactly money spent on golf carts, but hardly money that went to actual construction. That experience (and others at the same agency) left me deeply cynical about promises about funding.

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  2. #2 |  Anonymous |  February 25th, 2003 at 11:31 am

    Amazing.

    Just like putting the numbers business out of business and then starting Lotto.

    If it makes money the gov’t wants in.

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  3. #3 |  Jay Langan |  February 25th, 2003 at 2:23 pm

    It’s not surprising. I have been asking for years now, who in government will have the courage to write a law banning smoking. If it is as bad as everyone says it is, it should be a no brainer. They talk one way and then take the money. It’s the easy way out.

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  4. #4 |  scanner |  February 26th, 2003 at 9:58 am

    Im not surprised. Politics are politics.

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  5. #5 |  Shotwell |  February 26th, 2003 at 1:04 pm

    I work for the government and I really know the JOYS! of spending other peoples money.

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