Viewpoints: Letters / Opinions
Ketchikan's Proposed Tobacco Tax
By Jim Tuttle
July 25, 2015
Saturday PM
Really, City of Ketchikan and the Borough? You really need all of that extra money from your proposed tobacco tax? For what, really? I'm not a smoker and certainly not the smartest guy in town, but even I can smell a money grab when it's so obvious. A paltry 18% or so dedicated to address the supposed problem and the rest to go into the local coffers for who knows what, but no doubt to the benefit of the "visitors" that saturate our beloved little town every year.
By the way, they aren't "visitors", they're "tourists"; a visitor is someone I invite or welcome into my home, not someone that pays good money to visit this slice of heaven little town of ours that we all call home.
Those on the Borough Assembly that voted in favor of this heavy hammer of $3 per pack on cigarettes on a very select minority now fall in line and join with the edict of Juneau, our all-seeing and all-knowing wonder lords of the North that seem to know what's best for all of us in Southeast. They know that the smokers in our fair town and Borough are simply of the minority, and if the Borough members ever had the guts to allow this measure to go to a popular vote it probably would be sustainded, but it would still not make it right. Right?
Really, City of Ketchikan and the Borough? This is what we've been reduced to? To rob from a minority for your glorified purpose of tourist enhancement?
Jim Tuttle
Ketchikan, Alaska
About: "Jim Tuttle, 26-year resident of Ketchikan."
Received July 23, 2015
- Published July 25, 2015
Related Viewpoint:
 Raising Ketchikan's Tobacco Tax By Donald A. Johnson
Tobacco Tax By Chris Elliott
First the smokes and then... By A. M. Johnson
Ketchikan tobacco tax By Pat Bethel
Ketchikan's proposed cigarette tax By John Loyd
The Smoker's Tax By Paul Jarvi
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