Hypocrisy In Tallahassee

As news stories have pointed in the past week, the same Legislature that this year refused to consider new taxes of any sort - even with Florida facing $4 billion in brutal budget cuts - saw no problem with new fees.

The Legislature has raised user fees by $120 million in the court system alone, plus other increases for environmental permitting and agricultural activities.

"I'm OK with user fees," said Senate Finance and Tax Chairman Mike Haridopolos. "What people are frustrated about is when they see their taxes paid into a general fund and they have no idea where it is being spent."

Yet, if that cause-and-effect philosophyis the legislative logic for raising revenue, how could Florida lawmakers - in good conscience - reject an increase in the state's cigarettetax?

State Sen. Ted Deutch proposed a bill increasing the cigarette tax - one of the lowest in the nation - by $1 a pack.

That would have raised an estimated $1 billion more a year. The bill directed the revenue to Medicaid funding, cancer research and other health-related needs.HALF WOULD HAVE BEEN ENOUGHEven if the proposed increase and the resulting revenue had been cut in half, it would have been enoughto offset the state budget's $418 million cutsin Medicaid payments for nursing homes and hospitals.

As for cause and effect, it doesn't get muchmore direct than smoking and health-care costs. Tobacco use costs $6.32 billion in medical care each year in Florida - including $1.2 billion from the taxpayer-funded state Medicaid budget, according to the Web site TobaccoFreeKids.org.

Beyond the money generated, increasing the cigarette tax encourages smokers to quit and discourages young people from starting. The Lung Association predicted that a $1 increase in Florida's tax would cause a 4 percent drop in adult smoking rates and a 7 percent drop in teenage rates in the first year alone.

Yet, when the Legislature approved its budget last week, it did not include an increase in the cigarette tax - or the money to make up the Medicaid shortfall.GOV. CRIST's INTRANSIGENCEWhose fault is it? Chiefly, Gov. Charlie Crist's. Asked last month if the state should consider increasing the cigarette tax, Crist replied bluntly: "No. No new taxes."

Legislation that a governor opposes so adamantly doesn't usually go far. But not many senators or representatives joined Deutch to press the issue.

When it comes to raising money in theLegislature, labeling is apparently everything.Call it a tax, and no matter how sensible,necessary or even life-saving it may be, it's going nowhere.

But call it a fee and the Senate Finance and Tax chairman - and most of the Legislature - has no problem with it.

In the case of the cigarette-tax increase, that is more than hypocritical. It's unconscionable.