Legislature can clear air with tobacco tax hike

Here we go again. It's the annual struggle to convince a couple of powerfully positioned people that the tax on tobacco products should be raised because:

1. The directed use of the plant kills people.

2. The regular use of the substance harms innocent people around them, especially children.

3. The current tax is far below the national average and the levels of the states around us.

4. Dying from the diseases of smoking, like emphysema, for those unfortunates is a living hell.

5. Smoking is an addiction made legal only by the blood money of wealthy corporations buying politicians.

6. Utah is in desperate need of the funds to pay for the costs to the system incurred by the use of tobacco.

7. The tax increase is a penalty on tobacco products, not on the people — they can choose to stop and not pay the tax.

8. There are medically safe alternatives for those who use tobacco as self-medication for anxiety.

9. The vast majority of the electorate is in favor of a tax increase.

10. Smoking contributes to colic and irritable babies — people are willing to pay for the resulting silence.

11. Most smokers want to quit, and increasing the cost is a market incentive to stop.

12. Higher cost prevents teenagers from starting in the first place.

13. There is an inverse relationship between the height of the tax and the number of people who stop — the higher the tax, the lower the number of smokers.

14. The money earned from the tax could be used for cancer research to work toward a cure.

15. Smoking is uncool and dumb, and there should be a price to be uncool and dumb.

16. People who smoke are often the same people who could use the money for themselves and their families.

17. Tobacco executives are liars when they swear under oath that nicotine is not addictive — taxing their product is a way of punishing them for their cunning designs.

18. Not all taxes are bad; they are necessary for the function of government.

19. I am tired of treating kids with asthma triggered by their parents' smoking.

20. Having to kiss older aunts and uncles who have tobacco breath and stained teeth and yellow fingers is child abuse.

So when it is reported that individuals say the proposed increase is too high, I have to wonder, too high compared to what? Too high it will embarrass us as a people? Too high the state revenue computers wouldn't be able to calculate the savings? Too high that young people thinking about starting can't count that far? Too high thereby producing too many digits to put on the price tag? Too high to prevent us from being in the executive club of states with the lowest taxes of all states that do not produce tobacco? Too high because the tobacco lobby says it is too high?