Addicted in New York

Imagine that! Governor David Paterson believes smokers have more cash to burn! And so he proposes to add another $1.60 to the price of a pack of smokes by taxing the addiction even more.

So does anyone see the irony of a state addicted to taxes deciding to punish taxpayers for a personal addiction?

I have never been a smoker. It's a nasty and deadly habit in my view. Most who indulge in the habit are trapped by the nicotine. Many would like to quit, and perhaps Governor Paterson and his cohorts will persuade a few to pursue a healthier lifestyle.

But it's also clear that New York State will depend on hundreds of millions of extra dollars destined to go up in smoke with the latest money grab. While smokers will choke over this... all of us are choking under a heavy dark cloud of taxation already.

Albany has decided to shove more responsibilities back onto local municipalities which depend on local property taxes to pay the bills. State aid for hospitals and schools will no doubt suffer; yet no thought has been given to trimming the state's bloated bureacracy, which at last count carried nearly 200 thousand employees on the payroll.

Borrowing hardly seems a good idea either for a state that's already up to its ears in debt.

The budget will be finished by June 28th through the Governor's last "emergency" spending bill, because it now comes as an ultimatum to recalcitrant lawmakers. Did anyone in Albany ever hear the wise man's advice? He said: "when you're deep in the hole, it's time to stop digging."

I leaves me bemused to consider that a state deeply addicted to taxes, fees and unfunded mandates, would decide to further punish the nicotine-bound for their addictions. On one hand, the state proposes to curb an unhealthy habit. On the other hand, Albany will feed on the very habit it proposes to discourage. Goose? Golden Egg? Killed? Hello, does anybody get it?

Perhaps voters need to kick their habit of returning incumbents to make the same mistakes all over again. There's a chance, albeit a slim one.