Increasing taxes to get more revenue frequently does not work.   The District of Columbia raised it tax on cigarettes from $2 a carton to $2.50 a carton.  As a result, DC collected $4.9 million less during the period October 2009 through April 2010 than it did the prior period covering the same months.  Extrapolating this number to a year equates to an annual decrease of $8.4 million.  The brain-trust idiots who passed the increase predicted that revenue would go up $9.7 million a year.

See “Wealthy Fleeing Tax Happy New Jersey – $70 Billion Lost 2004 – 2008” for another example of increasing taxes with the result of less revenue collected.