Sin taxes are suffering from a stupidinutiveage of sinners

Pity the California taxman. The state has a yawning budget deficit, which politicians are trying to skinny. Local laws create it difficult to elevate taxes, requiring a two-thirds transport inantity. Worse, once-reliable sources of funds are running parched. Fuel-tax revenues are predict to drop acutely as drivers switch to electric vehicles. Revenues from cigarette taxes have druncover by $500m, or 29%, since 2017; now those from spirits taxes are dropping, too. This is a trouble: at current, revenues from the trio of taxes amount to proximately half of what the state spends on higher education.