Illinois: Increasing cigarette tax is the wrong fix on Medicaid costs

Financially-moribund Illinois is looking to slash a whopping $2.7 billion from its Medicare budget. For those of you who are wondering--yes, this is the same Illinois that raised personal income taxes by 67 percent last year. Businesses were clobbered too, but they were not hit as hard--their rate went up 'only' 46 percent. Yet the Prairie State is still expected to end the fiscal year with an $8 billion deficit. One proposal from Democratic Governor Pat Quinn to make the Medicaid cuts less steep is to hike the cigarette tax by $1 a pack.

As I've mentioned countless times in this space, revenue from smoking-related taxes almost never matches politicians' forecasts. The cash shortfall then has to be made up elsewhere.

Besides, Illinois' tax-and-spend-even-more way of doing things has led to the state having the nation's lowest credit rating. We don't need more of the same.

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