NY State's "Crack" Tax

Gov. Elliot Spitzer of New York does not seem to be the brightest bulb in the chandelier. He's a classic tax and spend liberal, but just look what he plans to tax:

If you can't beat it, tax it.

That seems to be the axiom in New York these days, where Gov. Eliot L. Spitzer (D), struggling to close a $4.4 billion budget gap, has proposed making drug dealers pay tax on their stashes of illegal drugs. The new tax would apply to cocaine, heroin and marijuana, and could be paid with pre-bought "tax stamps" affixed to the bags of dope.

Some critics in the legislature are asking what the governor has been smoking.

"I guess if it moves, he'll tax it," said Republican state Sen. Martin J. Golden, who dubbed the proposal "the crack tax." Some opponents said that because cocaine and weed would be subject to the new levies, it should more aptly be called "the crack-pot tax."

I had a previous story about a NY assemblyman who is objecting to the tax, not because it's stupid, but because it's unfair to drug dealers.

While it's easy to characterize this new tax as the product of a fevered brain, it's also easy to see how this could be the first step to a legalized illicit drug trade. Once you tax something, you've legitimized it and there would be no desire on the part of the state to stop the activity that's generating the tax revenue. The same principle has been in effect on tobacco products for years. When the government needs more money, they slap higher taxes on tobacco knowing that the users of the evil weed can't stop, and despite the harm to society and the individual smoker, the tax money will continue to pour in.

Of course, what's the likelihood that a drug dealer will show up at his local State tax office to purchase tax stamps for his illegal stash? Somebody must have been high when they thought this one up.