Mar 10, 2014

Smokers may pay for Kasich’s tax cut

According to an article in today's Columbus Dispatch, raising the cigarette tax by $1 would help pay for Kasich’s plan to drop the top state income-tax rate below 5 percent, but it would hit the poor the hardest.

“It’s bad news for poor people, that’s for sure,” said Jack Frech, director of the Athens County Department of Job and Family Services, which is in one of Ohio’s poorest areas. “Let me say, no one should be smoking cigarettes. It’s unhealthy, and no one should smoke. But poor people are not going to be able to turn on a dime and stop smoking because (the state) raises the prices.”

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