We are dubious about using a regressive tax to fund something as important as education — especially when the impact of the tax likely would, over time, create less revenue year to year due to people choosing not to purchase the targeted product because of the increased cost caused by the higher tax.
But the hand-wringing and doomsday scenarios presented by some Missouri legislators about Proposition B, the ballot initiative that would increase the state’s tobacco tax with funds generated going primarily to public education, are overstatements at best and, at worst, disingenuous.
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