Is It Biblical to Tax Sin?

The State of New York, my current home, passed a $2.75 tax on all packs of cigarettes.  They’re claiming it’s helping citizens of the state to quit smoking.  In the Pittsburgh, PA area, a 10% tax on alcoholic beverages was enacted to help subsidize public transit.  Is taxing “sin” such as tobacco, alcohol and the like a biblical way to govern?

A point I’ve raised before, which I’ll raise again, is that if we’re taxing alcohol (which I believe we should tax harder) and taxing cigarettes (an easy target by politicians) why not legalize marijuana and fund public health care and infrastructure?  In 2006, the state of California confiscated almost $250 millionworth of marijuana and marijuana plants.  As we can all assume, there must be about another billion dollars in marijuana floating around California if a quarter of a billion was confiscated.  Taxed at 100%, that’s $250 million for just the state of California, not counting the savings from having to arrest, prosecute and incarcerate marijuana dealers.  In fact, California’s CAMP program (campaign against marijuana planting) netted $6.7 billion worth of illegal Marijuana plants.  Much easier to balance the budget with an extra $7 billion lying around.

Regardless of the pot issue, what is the biblical approach to a sin tax?  Is it right to prosper off of a person’s misery?  Can we sit in church preaching against alcoholism and frequent smoking, yet support laws that profit off of such activity?  Or, on the other hand, is reaching into a person’s wallet the best way to enforce moral standards?

~ by jmarchelewski on June 16, 2008.