YOUR VIEWS
Tax liquor
Regarding “Cigarette ‘fee’ ruling a win for taxpayers” (Our Views, Aug. 11): The Oklahoman editorial board needs to forget about a cigarette tax. The reason: It’s a dwindling revenue stream. If you want to push for a “sin tax,” go to alcohol. It’s a very robust revenue stream. I think a dime per can on beer and the same on an ounce of booze. I have never heard of a person robbing a store and murdering the employees while under the influence of cigarettes or killing a family in a vehicle while under the influence of cigarettes. Most guys don’t come home and beat their wives and children while under the influence of tobacco.
As you said, if you want less of something, tax it. Taxing cigarettes is like clubbing baby seals. Nobody will defend smoking. Booze, on the other hand, is a whole different matter. I know alcohol is already taxed, but if the state needs money, that’s where it is. By the way, I neither drink nor smoke.
Mike Rowlett, Oklahoma City
No more tax cuts
You think we have budget and debt problems in this nation now, just wait until Republicans pass their “tax reform” that includes corporate tax cuts from 35 percent to 15 percent. We are creating unsustainable debt at the rate of half-a-trillion dollars a year and this tax cut will destroy any illusion of government solvency.
There is something terribly wrong with what is happening in America. In the 1950s we had tax rates as high as 50 percent, union wages that created the world’s greatest middle class, and jobs that provided good benefits. Working people could afford to live the American Dream. Today, working people struggle to pay their bills, often working two or more jobs just to get by. This is not the time to cut taxes for millionaires and billionaires. A.A. Austin, Del City
Tobacco tax questions
The Republican Legislature tacked a $1.50 “fee” onto cigarettes under the guise of “saving lives” when it actually was an easy way to reap more taxes to close the budget shortfall. In 2013, many of the same members approved a measure to set the legal age at 18 to buy e-cigarettes and increased taxes on all tobacco products by 5 cents. Why didn’t they raise the legal age to 21 if they truly want to deter smoking? Since they are quick to drain rainy day funds, why don’t they manipulate the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust funds to meet their concerns for our health?
If the aim is honestly to raise revenue, why won’t they consider rescinding the income tax cuts Gov. Fallin insisted they enact? If those sacred cuts are part of the revenue problem, then why aren’t they part of the solution?
Pat Lowry, Oklahoma City
Out of whack
I like Sooner football, but my stomach turned when I read “New facilities offer plenty of space, technology” (Sports, Aug. 14). Here we have the equivalent to a five-star hotel for a college football team while public schools in Oklahoma are beyond financial crisis, teachers try to do their best on salaries that barely are above poverty level, facilities are in major disrepair, schedules and programs are cut due to funding — the list goes on and on. Yet the Sooners have a posh lounge and a “stink-free” locker room, not to mention the waterfall and flashing lights!
Additionally, what does all this star treatment do to the psyches of impressionable young men? What happens when they reach the realities of life after college football (or sometimes even during college!)? With priorities like this being held out as an example by a higher learning institution, it’s no wonder this state is in the dire financial state that it is.
Carolee Wende, Oklahoma City