Well, it’s “official”. The Proposition 10 fifty cent cigarette tax that Rob Reiner pushed (or bullshitted) into existence, with Hahn’s blessing is a fraud. This tax “for the school children” has not been going to the school system as was promised. Instead, it has been used for travel and administration (junkets for oficials) instead. Millions of dollars (820 million) have been raised by this tax in the past six years, with no result except for looting by officials. The programs it was supposed to fund is not even set up yet. I warned people at the time that there was something wrong with a tax that targets only a portion of the population, and which comes with the universal feel good slogan “for the children”, and my warnings have been vindicated. But, still I need to know how a has been Hollyood slug gets to decide we need a new tax? I never voted for Reiner, he never held any office, so what the fuck??? And then Hahn, who is always in hot water for various things (coruption anyone) lets all this money be wasted to boot. The only thing that makes it worse is the stupid people who keep voting for new propositions, to raise our taxes ever more. To the people, actors, and citizens of Los Angeles - You can all go to hell.
I might be wrong, but I’m guessing we could use a bit more information. Not all of us live in Los Angeles.
Impersonating Ronald Reagan, perhaps?
Did the people vote for this by any chance? (God forbid the people should have a say!)
If the funds have been misappropriated, it isn’t Reiner’s fault. You said yourself that he isn’t an elected official. Sounds like he had a good idea, the people approved and someone misused the funds. That’s the person deserving of the blame.
This was a proposition (we use propositions when someone wants something without going through “normal channels” or when politicians won’t enact them) we had on the ballot back in 1999 in Los Angeles. This proposition was to raise the tax on cigarettes by yet another 50 cents per pack (never mind that minus taxes they would only cost about 30 cents a pack). Since it was a tax targeted against a specific portion of the population it was easier to “sell” to the public. Nonsmoking people went and voted for a tax they wouldn’t have to pay, dumping the full load on smokers. It had been instigated and championed by The Man Known As The Meat Head (Rob Reiner, late of All in the Family). Meat Head isn’t and wasn’t an elected official. The slogan used to convince people it was a good thing was “for the children”. It was supposed to go directly into the education system For The Children. It never got there. City officials got their hooks in it and started using it for themselves. Meanwhile all the nonsmokers who weren’t paying shit, felt all warm and fuzzy about how they had done a good thing without shelling out a cent themselves. The full story was in the L.A. Times today (14 November).
Colorado passed a 64 cent increase in the cigarette tax this year for health services. Part of the selling point was that as it is going to be in the state constitution rather than a law, the legislature can’t touch the funds for other purposes. I’m skeptical, but I hope we don’t repeat California’s experience.
The nonsmoking people who don’t pay it, levied it on the smokers to pay. They voted for a tax THEY don’t have to pay or worry about themselves.
It is Reiner’s baby. Like Powell says, “you break it, you own it”. He (yet another LA rabid antismoker) pushed it through and got it on the ballot.
Tobacco taxes do not target only one “specific portion of the population.” They equally target anyone who buys tobacco, just like a sales tax on cars applies equally to anyone who buys cars.
No one who does not wish to pay a tobacco tax is in any way coerced into paying it.
Well, yeah. I thought all taxes were “targeted against a specific portion of the population.”
But that’s neither here nor there if the money isn’t going where it’s supposed to be going.
Right, so if you proposed a ballot to tax vegetables in order to benefit education, and the politicians all appropriated the funds, is that your fault?
Yeah if that ain’t enough, there’s another one of them thar government-mandated laws about cigarettes. Since the 1960’s, the tobacco companies have been forced to print some crap about cigarettes being dangerous. Dangerous shmangerous !!!
Seriously SteveG1, cigarettes are ridiculously taxed AND have been a proven health risk. Gee, what course of action do you think you should take? Hmmm I can’t think of a darned thing.
Governments are always slapping consumption taxes on alcohol, tobacco and gasoline. So what? Point out the people writing the checks if the money is being misappropriated.
Then, of course, there’s the problem of what to do about the declining revenues of the tax as people quit smoking. How are the folks going to pay for their junkets then? Won’t someone please think of the junket takers?
Tuckerfan, that’s what I’ve always wondered- why do people think a sin tax makes any sense? The gov’t gets used to having all this extra cash, but what if people stop doing the “bad thing” you are taxing (like you keep telling them too)? Then where will they get that money? Because they sure as hell aren’t going to spend less.
Answer- the gov’t doesn’t want you to stop smoking, or drinking, or whatever. They want to tax the hell out of it, but in order to keep that money flowing in, they not only have to hold on to the poeple who are doing the sinning, but they probably need new ones all the time.
Amazing how the gov’t and the tobacco companies share the same goals, ain’t it?
As a general rule, I vote no on propositions for the very reasons mentioned in the OP. Mainly, because the money never seems to reach it’s intended target.
The measure was put before the voters, and they voted for it. They were duped, yes. Just like in a 100 propositions before this one. Place the blame where it belongs. On the voters.
Gee, how about saving a little of the blame for the people who mis-appropriated the money?
Are banks to blame because they get robbed?
Well, if they’re robbed twice a week, every week, for as long as anyone can remember, and continue to use the same procedures and personell…then yeah, they are.
Yes, those who took the money are scumbags. But we knew that they were scumbags. They’ve been doing this put-near forever.
There are bond propositions for LAUSD schools pretty much every year. They always pass. But the money never gets to where they said it was going. We still have overcrowded, crumbling, violence-ridden schools with shit for supplies. And the LAUSD has an annual budget of over 8 billion dollars.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me every stinking year…
Well, the standard practice seems to be to cut the funds that would otherwise go to the schools to the same extent that the new tax raises money. The money ‘saved’ is then used for whatever the govt. wants to use if for. If taxes are going to be raised, sin taxes are as good as any. But the results usually aren’t what was intended.
cj
Sorry for the brief question here, but Rob Reiner—the actor/director?
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(a) Every tax is targeted. Income tax targets wage-earners and investors, sales tax targets consumers, property tax targets homeowners
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(b) Renters can vote on property-tax propositions. People with no children in school can vote on school-tax propositions. Consumers can vote on sales-tax propositions. Straight evangelicals can vote on gay-marriage propositions.
So non-smokers can vote on cigarette-tax propositions. Get over it.
- Rob Reiner & buddies pitch to the politicians and public an idea for an extra tax to finance education. The public buys the pitch and passes the tax. Then the elected and appointed public officials misappropriate the funds.
It’s not Meathead’s fault the public officials violated THEIR obligation, implicit in their oaths of office to watch out for the public interest. Send them to jail and give back the money to the schools.
Nitpick:
Of course, I do pay my condo owner’s property tax as part of my rent.
But, carry on.