Between working longer hours, paying more bills and getting fewer paychecks, some reach for a cigarette to take a break. But during an economic crisis where cigarettes may be needed the most, they’re becoming more expensive due to federal and state tax increases, and rightfully so.

Last year in Wisconsin, the tax on a pack of cigarettes swelled to whopping $1.77, and Wisconsin has seen a great deal of success because of it. Gov. Jim Doyle has even expressed regret that he didn’t push for 25 more cents when he could. However, it looks like Doyle will try to push that last 25 cent increase through with his budget proposal.

In a time of economic crisis, rather than taxing income more and taking money away from people who can be use the money for necessities like food, taxing discretionary goods like cigarettes and alcohol is beneficial because it deters people from an unhealthy habit while still allowing smokers to enjoy their inconvenience to the state, though for a price.

Some may retort, “Why should smokers be singled out and punished because of the economic situation?”

Because the only gain of smoking a cigarette is a brief buzz or the continuation of an unhealthy addiction, smokers have to bear a financial burden to continue hedonistic habits. The same would apply for alcohol and other indulgent behaviors. To say this is not patronizing or lofty but realistic because when economic crisis is affecting everyone in some way, sacrifices need to be made and cigarette smoking is simply one of the least necessary habits.

Comparatively, the possible cigarette tax increase would make Wisconsin one of the highest smoker-taxing states, weighing in at $1.77 per pack in taxes. The fifty states are fairly polarized with their taxing, so arguing that Wisconsin‘s tax is already too high isn’t very conclusive or reassuring for those who think raising the tax is unfair. As of January 2009, New York had the highest state cigarette tax with $2.75 per pack while Midwestern states like Minnesota bear a $1.50 tax and Illinois‘s is just 98 cents.

The tax on alcohol, gas and income is the same way. Each state has duly created its own unique conception of what is allowed to be taxed and in what capacity. The tax of a gallon of spirits ranges from $2 dollars per gallon in one state to $20 dollars in another, making the further polarization of the cigarette tax something more reasonable.

The proposed cigarette tax increase including the federal increase of $3.02 would make an average pack of cigarettes in Wisconsin $5.02, with just over 60 percent of retail price going to taxes.

In Greece–the country with the worst smoking habit in the European Union–is increasing its cigarette tax from 75 to 80 percent and almost every member of the European Union has a higher tax on cigarettes by percentage of retail price than any state in our country. Taxing cigarettes heavily is not unusual and makes sense because smoking is something only narrowly beneficial and widely detrimental for personal health, fortune, and state prosperity.

Taxing smokers has become a very successful economic move for many governments, including Wisconsin. Last year’s tax increase brought a boon of $543.2 million to Wisconsin, according to a Wisconsin State Journal article. There are also indirect benefits of taxing cigarettes, like the vast healthcare costs directly tied with cigarette smoking that would be eliminated. A University of Michigan-Ann Arbor study attributes a conservative six to eight percent of health care costs as directly resulting from the smoking of cigarettes. According to anti-smoking campaigners, fewer cigarettes means an estimated $480 million saved in smoking-related health care costs because each smoker accrues something like 5,000 dollars in medical costs each year.

This is a ton of money, enough to solve a lot of problems for the state. Some people may see healthcare costs resulting from smoking a huge profit for the health care industry–one of the nation’s greatest–making widespread cigarette smoking a source of profit. However, it would be insensitive for the state to be dissuaded from providing a disincentive to smoking, keeping us sick, to keep the health care industry thriving.

A Wisconsin State Journal article reports that advocates of the bill estimate that the proposed tax increase will help 10 percent of smokers quit smoking. Last year the number of cigarettes sold in Wisconsin dropped by almost 18 percent, according to the Legislature’s budget office.

If increasing the price of cigarettes means that less people are getting their fix, that’s okay. Cigarettes have such negligible benefits for the smoker in comparison to the detriments they create for the people around them and the state, let alone for themselves. If smokers feel that a tax increase is unfair, they have to work a little harder to pay for their fix and realize their indulgence is self-serving when people should have to help serve each other.

Patrick Johnson ([email protected]) is a Freshman majoring in Journalism and English