It's disappointing that Georgia lawmakers and Gov. Sonny Perdue would rather tax sick people than tax consumption of the things that make them sick.

That's backward.

People can choose whether to partake of items that may cause illnesses. They usually don't have a choice whether to have an operation to remove a tumor.

However, maybe there's a method to the legislature's and governor's cockeyed madness.

In supporting a hospital "bed tax" over a proposed $1-a-pack tax hike on a pack of cigarettes, perhaps state officials figured they'd still get the money they needed to help balance the budget. It's a matter of which pocket you take it from.

Instead of raking it on the front end from countless smokers at the cash register, lawmakers and the governor figured they'd collect it on the back end from a small number of hospitals - which, after all, are treating many of these same people for smoking-related illnesses.

It's clean and neat. This tax collection method may be politically safer, too. Hospitals don't vote. But many people who smoke Marlboros and Camels do.

Unfortunately, the numbers still don't add up.

The bed tax, which Mr. Perdue signed into law Wednesday, will generate $90 million. State Rep. Ron Stephens (R-Savannah), who championed the cigarette tax hike, estimated that raising the state's cigarette tax from a piddly 37 cents per pack to $1.37 would bring in $350 million.

Better yet, as smokers cut back, the state's Medicaid program could see a projected $537 million in savings by treating fewer patients with smoking-related illnesses. A sick tax has no extra benefit.

There's an old saying: You can pay me now, or you can pay me later. By taxing the sick - a cost that will be passed along to all patients and their insurers - Georgia's leaders chose poorly.