Edward Ehlinger: Buying Minnesota better public health and lower health care costs

 

Rachel wanted me to share this article on tobacco tax.

Ninety-four cents isn't enough to buy you a pack of gum. It's not enough to buy you a bus ride to work. In many cases, 94 cents isn't even enough to get you a can of soda from a vending machine.

But if we are smart about it, 94 cents may just buy Minnesota better public health and lower health care costs.

Gov. Mark Dayton's biennial budget proposes to increase the cigarette tax rate by 94 cents per pack. Others are proposing higher levels of taxes. Each of the proposals will bring in some additional revenue for the state, but whatever the revenue it will be dwarfed by the short-term and long-term savings the tax generates by preventing deadly disease and tackling runaway health care costs. Read the rest of the article.

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