There is still time for Indiana lawmakers to reject a hike in the state cigarette tax that is unfair and ineffective: that’s the message the free-market grassroots group Americans for Prosperity issued today on behalf of the over 6,000 Hoosiers in the group’s network. The group also sent an e-mail action alert to its Indiana members urging them to contact their lawmakers and oppose the scheme, which would ultimately put many Indiana citizens on the hook to pay for bigger government.

“Cigarette taxes do little to curb smoking and much to feed politicians’ addiction to hard-earned tax dollars,” said AFP Executive Vice President Michelle Korsmo. “This cigarette tax hike suffers from a fundamental contradiction – while its stated goal is to discourage smoking, it also make the state reliant on revenue from smokers to fund health care programs. Hiking cigarette taxes to pay for more government-run health care programs will brew a toxic mix, not a miracle elixir for Indiana.”

Korsmo was quick to note that two recent studies from the Tax Foundation, a well-respected non-partisan tax research organization, demonstrate that using cigarette excise taxes to fund health care undercuts much of the value of the new program for poor households, who disproportionately pay the tax. AFP recommends state lawmakers instead work to provide health insurance coverage in ways driven by consumers to promote competition and lower prices through deregulation without major new expenditures of tax dollars.

“The logic behind this tax hike simply doesn’t make sense. If people really do quit smoking due to these increased cigarette taxes, won’t the state bring in less money for the myriad of new government programs it has just created?” Korsmo asked. “Whose pocket will be picked next to pay for the state government’s new spending?”

 Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is the nation’s premier grassroots organization of citizen leaders working at the state and local level and committed to advancing every individual’s right to economic freedom and opportunity. AFP educates and engages citizens in support of restraining state and federal government growth and returning government to its constitutional limits. For more information, visit www.americansforprosperity.org. # # #