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(Reuters) - New York City sued the city's first "roll-your-own" cigarette business on Monday in its latest attempt to reduce smoking rates and retain revenue from the highest combined city and state tobacco tax in the nation.
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That's a really odd way to phrase it. We all know that state governments make a considerable sum in revenue from cigarette tax. I've heard that tax revenue actually exceeds what the cigarette companies make from selling tobacco.
So if NYC is making this move to protect its revenue stream from roll-your-own operations, why would they threaten that revenue stream at the same time by working to reduce smoking? That makes no sense.
I wish that our governments would just admit that tax revenue is their single biggest motivating factor instead of trying to pretend otherwise.