On Friday’s Jan. 16 KSN -TV evening news, a reporter mentioned that Governor Brownback was going to raise the state cigarette tax from 79 cents a pack to $2.29. Also, on Saturday morning, the Salina Journal has a front-page story on this same issue. This is Sam Brownback’s way of getting out of the deficit hole that he created.
This action shows an “attitude” problem that the governor has. First, he greatly reduces the income taxes that his rich cronies would have paid, then he puts an enormous tax on the middle class and the poor who smoke cigarettes. His rich friends can afford to continue buying their cigarettes. The middle class and the poor cannot. For example, a basic cartoon of cigarettes like, Pall Mall, now costs about $36, but with the new tax this same cartoon will cost about $60. Most smokers smoke a pack or more per day. It’s quite conceivable that they will need to buy four cartoons a month having to spend an additional $24 X 4 or $96 per month. That’s a lot of money for a middle class family or a poor family. If Sam Brownback could just snap his fingers and all the smokers could quit now that would be a success story. But Brownback has no such power. But Brownback has the power to hurt the middle class and the poor by enacting taxes.
i am a conservative. i met Governor Sam Brownback at the annual GOP picnic in Logan, Kansas where both of us briefly spoke to the audience. He talked like a conservative. i believe he even said that he would not raise any taxes. But I have forgotten that Brownback is from the Washington group of politicians who promise one thing and do the opposite. That folks is deception of the American people and that is the Washington way of doing business which our governor has learned. Folks, I urge you to read the book, “Bombing America, the Deception of the American People” which explains how we can get our country back on the right path.
Our middle class and the poor are taking the biggest hit from Washington and now from our state. In 20 years we may not have a middle class any longer which will result in only the rich and the poor. The end result will be the demise of America.
Roger Ewing, Hays