Opinion: Tobacco Tax Increase Initiative Will Not Aid Budget
In a Sacramento Bee opinion piece, former California Department of Finance Director Michael Genest argues that Proposition 29 -- a June ballot initiative that would increase California's tax on cigarettes by $1 per pack to raise funds for cancer research -- "will not help" resolve the state's budget crisis. He writes that Proposition 29 would use tax revenue "to create yet another unaccountable, out-of-control bureaucracy."
- "Viewpoints: Prop. 29: Plan To Raise Millions is Latest Ballot-Box Budgeting Boondoggle" (Genest, Sacramento Bee, 5/12).