Florida may raise its cigarette tax by $1 a pack, but supporters of the proposal don’t want to call it a tax. They embracing that old pro-tax standy phrase, “user fee.”
Here’s what Sarasota Herald-Tribune columnist Tom Lyons had to say about that nonsense: “Well, the term ‘user fee’ has been stretched before, but this would be an atomic wedgie. User fees are charged when the government provides someone a product or service that others don’t get. The government isn’t providing cigarettes, and lots of non-smokers do things that increase their use of medical services.”
