If good sense and an appreciation for  timing prevail in the Iowa Legislature,  this is the last time we’ll have  to take this particular editorial position:  Raise the cigarette tax. Gov. Chet Culver’s  call for a dollar-a-pack increase is  more ambitious than the proposal by  his predecessor, but it’s not out of line,  and the fact that the additional $130  million it is projected to raise annually  would be earmarked for health-care initiatives  makes it the right tax at the  right time.

It’s true that Culver campaigned on  a promise not to raise taxes.A valuable  lesson in that is that politicians should  learn to never say never. Another one is  that sometimes opportunities arise that  shouldn’t be avoided, regardless of  what was said when the political landscape  looked so dramatically different  than it does now with Democrats in  control of the legislative and executive  branches of Iowa government.

It would be hard to create more  favorable conditions in which to pass  socially relevant legislation. For the first  time in recent memory, Iowa lawmakers  have a genuine opportunity to  make the state more progressive and  attractive to the legions of young people  we’d like to persuade to come here  and work.

There are a host of proposals, from  stem-cell research initiatives to anti-bullying  legislation to increasing the cigarette  tax to $1.36 per pack, that are  politically charged, but which we  believe can move Iowa light-years  ahead socially. Such proposals don’t  have much chance of moving forward  when more conservative-leaning politicians  controlled the Statehouse.

Iowans don’t like tax increases. No  one does. However, the proposal to  hike tobacco taxes carries benefits that  affect far more than a line item on a  budget.As much as Iowans may dislike  tax increases, they don’t care much for  spiraling health-care costs, either, or the  disturbing number of young people  who take up the deadly smoking habit  each year.

In the meantime, Culver needs to  learn the valuable lesson that he should  talk about the direction Iowa should be  heading, but avoid making promises  that are difficult to keep.

editor@bpcdm.com