Hmm…

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) A scientific poll has shown that 65 percent of South Dakota voters favor a ballot measure that would increase taxes on tobacco.

Jennifer Stalley (STAH’-lee) of the American Cancer Society says the poll proves that people believe higher taxes will stop kids from smoking.

South Dakota has the second highest rate of teenage smoking in the nation.

So the ballot initiative is all about keeping kids from smoking and making the general public smoke less by making smoking cost more, right?  Well maybe not exactly:

The ballot proposal would add one dollar onto a pack of cigarettes and increase the existing ten percent tax on other tobacco products to 35 percent.

It would boost state tobacco revenues by an estimated 40 (m) million dollars a year.

The first 30 (m) million would go into the state general fund.

Up to five (m) million a year would be steered into anti-smoking programs.

Additional revenues would be put into the property-tax reduction fund, an education trust fund and a health care trust fund.

So how do you tell when a tax like this is more about revenue than promoting public health?  When the government bureaucrats and nanny-state types start counting all the money the tax will bring in before it is even levied.

I mean, isn’t the point here to reduce tobacco use?  If taxes like this really reduced tobacco use these people wouldn’t be bragging about all the money the tax will bring in.

And what if tobacco use does go down after the state government gets used to this additional revenue?  We all know how the politicians react when the government starts losing revenue they’ve become accustomed to.  If they can’t get it from taxing tobacco any more they’re going to get it through some other type of tax.

Ballot initiatives like this one are just plain stupid.  They rarely accomplish the goals they set out to accomplish, and usually they just end up in the government taking more money from citizens in general.