Blue Crab Boulevard

May I See Your Cigarette Papers, Please?

You really have got to be joking. Tennessee has just hit police state status over cigarettes. I wish to heck I was making this up:

NASHVILLE — Starting today, state Department of Revenue agents will begin stopping Tennessee motorists spotted buying large quantities of cigarettes in border states, then charging them with a crime and, in some cases, seizing their cars. (Emphasis added)

Critics say the new “cigarette surveillance program” amounts to the use of “police state” tactics and wrongfully interferes with interstate commerce. But state Revenue Commissioner Reagan Farr says his department is simply doing its job, enforcing a valid state law while protecting Tennessee retailers who properly pay state taxes.

Agents have already been watching out-of-state stores that sell cigarettes near the Tennessee border to “get a feel where problem areas are,” Farr said.

While declining to be specific, the commissioner said “problem areas” are generally along interstate highways with exits near the Tennessee border.

The idea is for the monitoring agent to spot a person buying cigarettes in volume at an out-of-state market, then departing in a vehicle with Tennessee license tags. Starting today, monitoring agents spotting such a suspect will call an arresting agent who will stop the car when it enters Tennessee, he said.

The agents will work “in roving teams at random times,” he said.

“This shows once again that Reagan Farr and the Department of Revenue are more interested in turning Tennessee into a police state than doing their job of collecting taxes,” said Drew Johnson, president of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research.

The reason? Tennessee went to a 62 cent per pack tax from a 20 cent one - and every state around them has substantially lower tax rates. So this is the response. Sending out spies across state lines and taking citizen's cars for daring to defy the mighty state.

This is not America. This is, frankly, jack-booted thuggery dressed up with good intentions.

Consumption taxes are absolutely regressive. They impact the poorest much more than the better off. Every time, no matter what the product. But the state of Tennessee feels it can spy on its citizens - across state lines - and then take their cars from them if they violate the regressive tax. So a person who wants or needs tobacco (maybe a "habit" but a legal one) who is also not well off may want to cross the border to avoid a punitive tax. The better off shrug and pay it. But the state drops the hammer on the working stiff who wants a smoke at a fairly reasonable price.

Get this straight - whether you smoke or not, this will impact you. Because when the revenues fall - and they will - the state will tax something else. Something you hold dear. And they have set the standard for how they will enforce it.

By placing a boot on your neck. Welcome to Tennessee, the volunteer to be subjugated to the government state.

UPDATE: Others: Rook's Rant, QandO, David Harsanyi's Blog, The Agitator, Hot Air, The Oxford Medievalist,

Notice what's missing? That is the full list commenting on this that is up over at Memeorandum. Not. One. Lefty. Blog. You know, the folks who howl that terrorists deserve civil rights. The ones who screech about the erosion of civil liberties. The ones who are frauds.

UPDATE: Correction. Rook's Rant is a left-libertarian blog. And as of this update the only one commenting.

Bad Ideas, Taxes | Gaius Thursday, 27 September , 2007

By Rook, Friday, 28 September , 2007 @ 7:09 am

Ah, lefty here. True blue progressive. And libertarian,
By Gaius, Friday, 28 September , 2007 @ 7:19 am

My apologies, I will correct. Thanks.
By feeblemind, Friday, 28 September , 2007 @ 9:21 am

This rates right up there with Maryland(?)using the night vision goggles to detect motorists that weren’t buckled up. If TN has enough surplus manpower to try and find cigarette cheaters, why not redeploy them to hunt down and deport illegal immigrants. I suspect that from the taxpayers perspective, deporting illegals would save the state far more money than what they would collect from cigarette tax cheaters. Last thought: Under what statute are they allowed to take a person’s private property (vehicle)without due compensation? And leave that decision to the arresting officer to boot? Sounds unconstitutional as can be.
By FedUp, Friday, 28 September , 2007 @ 11:59 am

And… why isn’t TN using these resources to surveil illegals?? Oh, I get it.. THAT would be profiling… and the other reason is money…
By OldeForce, Friday, 28 September , 2007 @ 4:50 pm

This isn’t the first time, and most likely won’t be the last, that this sort of thing happens. Friends used to drive into MD from PA for booze, as the MD tax was lower. So PA police set up traffic stops and made arrests. Didn’t NY keep an eye on the malls in the NJ meadowlands, copying down NY license plate numbers and stopping drivers once they got back into NY? I think the Ikea outlet was picked out for special attention. All to recover sales taxes that were “lost”.