EDITORIAL: Sin taxes and Garner

There has been no shortage of media coverage, outrage and commentary on the death of Eric Garner in New York City. That narrative has focused overwhelmingly on race (Mr. Garner was black, the officers were white), on the way police took him down in July, and on the grand jury’s decision last week to not indict the officer who had Mr. Garner in a chokehold.

But what Americans should not lose sight of in this case is why officers went after Mr. Garner in the first place. The 43-year-old was busted for selling loose cigarettes. And why did Mr. Garner have a street market for smokes that could be purchased lawfully just a short walk away? Because of the incredibly regressive sin taxes across this country in general, and in New York state and New York City specifically.

The federal government charges a $1.01 tax on every pack of cigarettes. The tax was 39 cents, but in April 2009, it more than doubled as part of the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act. That came after Sen. Barack Obama, in September 2008, just before he was elected president, said this: “I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.”

That promise didn’t make it past the first quarter of the first year of President Obama’s first term.

After the federal fee, the state of New York levies a whopping $4.35 tax per pack. And just for good measure, New York City piles on with an additional $1.50-per-pack tax. Total it all up, and you have $6.86 in taxes — $5.85 levied within the state of New York alone — driving up the retail cost of a pack of cigarettes to as much as $14.

When governments enact terribly regressive taxes on products people want, they inevitably create black markets for those products. Couple that with the failure of inner-city schools in predominantly black urban areas and a lack of economic opportunity, and governments practically invite people to sell those products tax-free. It will be an important lesson as more and more states legalize recreational marijuana — and tax the heck out of it.

Mr. Garner’s tragic death, captured on video, should trigger a national debate on police use of force, but let’s not forget the role that bad policy from overreaching government played in this incident. We can’t afford much more of it.