Hackett on Politics: State won’t get cigarette taxes from me anymore

It will be another month before the state Department of Revenue has figures showing how much additional revenue Connecticut gained in July from the increase in the cigarette tax that took effect July 1.
But what I can tell you today is that, since July 1, I’ve contributed $136 in taxes as part of my contribution to the shared sacrifices. It would have been a bit higher except I stocked up the final week of June to avoid the 40-cent per-pack increase.
Unfortunately for the state, my shared sacrifice ends there. As of today, I quit.
It’s a long-proven fact that an increase in the cigarette tax will result in a percentage of smokers giving up the habit. But this newfound health awareness on my part is not motivated by the financial impact — although I will admit the $304 per month I’ll be saving by not buying Beverly cigarettes (yes, that’s per month) will more than offset the slight decline in my paycheck due to the increase in state income-tax withholding.
No, the reason for quitting is due solely to an unplanned visit to the emergency room last week.
On Tuesday morning, I experienced four separate episodes of rather intense chest pain over a 90-minute span — and by intense I mean clutch-your-chest, take-your-breath-away and sit-you-back-in-your-chair pain.
The fact that it took four separate episodes in an hour and a half to come to the realization that maybe I shouldn’t ignore what was going on is a testament to just how stubborn — and stupid — I can be at times.
Denial is a wonderful thing, but only if it works — and clearly that morning it wasn’t, and eventually I had to acknowledge that I’m a 61-year-old, white male who has been smoking for more than 42 years, and maybe it was finally catching up to me.
Fortunately, it wasn’t a heart attack.
But despite getting the all clear in the emergency room, the hospital opted to keep me overnight for observation and a stress test the following morning, which I passed. (And I’ll probably need some of my newfound disposable income to pay the bill for that.)
The actual cause of the my discomfort is yet to be determined, and some follow-up is necessary. What is pretty clear is that all those years of smoking haven’t done me much good. And to be honest, if that discomfort I experienced is not what a heart attack feels like, I have no real desire to find out what one does feel like.
But all of that is still only partially the reason for the decision to finally quit.
The real reason is that despite being difficult at times to be around (see references above to being stubborn and stupid), there are a lot of people I care about very much who wish to have me around for a little longer — some even want me around a lot longer.
So, I’m quitting as of today. It won’t be easy, but going public with it adds that little extra motivation (pressure) to succeed. As noted above, I can be a bit stubborn at times, so I’ll just set my mind to it, dig my heels in and simply refuse to fail. That I can do.
But I’m not completely abandoning my responsibility to participate in the shared sacrifices being asked of all of us to help the state with its decades-long habit of spending. I still plan to contribute.
After all, with all that extra cash now, I can afford to upgrade the quality of the red wine that I’m not giving up.