To the editor:

Missourians were promised that the revenue from riverboat gambling would be used for education. We were promised that the temporary 6-cent gas tax, now permanent, would be used to build new highways. We were promised when Missouri joined the national tobacco lawsuit that any proceeds would be used for health care and tobacco-avoidance programs aimed at our young.

For anyone who thinks the proposed Proposition A tobacco-tax increase would fund health care for children, I have some prime farmland in southern Florida I'll make you a deal on.

Part of the rationale for raising the tobacco tax is based on the premise that smokers are a net cost to society because of the health-care costs when they get sick. There are a number of studies which suggest smokers are a net benefit to society. Yes, they get sick from smoking, but they die rather quickly and before they are able to draw Social Security retirement benefits equal to their contributions.

The people who will be a net cost to society are the health nuts who are destined to linger for years in nursing homes plus the medicinal regimen necessary to maintain someone at that stage of life -- all paid for by Medicare and other government programs while drawing Social Security benefits beyond the value of their own contributions.

If you want to tax people based on their projected cost to society, we should tax tofu, bean sprouts, bottled water and running shoes.

ROBERT A. CRON

Advance, Mo.