It’s the second straight year the House has approved higher cigarette taxes. The idea died without a hearing in the Senate last year. Senate President Pro Tem David Long won’t flatly rule it out this year, but says supporters will have some convincing to do. He says he’s “not excited” about the idea, and says many Senate Republicans feel the same way.
While the tax hike isn’t directly tied to road funding as it was last year, House Republicans are relying on it to make up money from gasoline sales taxes, which they want to steer toward roads. Long worries that replaces one declining source of money with another. And he says relying on cigarette taxes tugs the state away from a funding method that reflects how much people drive.
And Long echoes Senate Appropriations Chairman Luke Kenley’s warning that cigarette tax collections will decline as more people quit smoking. The road funding debate arose from falling gas tax collections, and Long says using cigarette taxes instead would replace one diminishing return with another.
story by Network Indiana
