sin tax

Voters in South Dakota may soon be considering a new proposal to dramatically increase the state’s tobacco tax.

A Utah state lawmaker is “threatening” to campaign for pro-consumer, pro-taxpayer reforms by championing a ballot amendment returning liquor sales to the domain of private businesses — if his colleagues fail to propose legislation getting the state government out of the booze business.

There’s an interesting phenomenon playing out in both New Jersey and Ohio: Two of the country’s most prominent conservative Republican governors have proposed new taxes of a sort that haven’t appealed even to traditionally liberal, tax-hungry state legislatures in states like Massachusetts and Washington.