Spending on political campaigns in this country, including Alaska, is reaching new highs, which means the election process is sinking to new lows.

Candidates don’t win on clear and honest debate of the issues, they win on social media blitzes, print and broadcast and digital advertising, click-inspired baited hooks and trolling campaigns that trawl the bottom for emotional issues.

All of which, though often offensive, is legal. And all of which costs an awful lot of money.

There is no limit on campaign donations in Alaska, though a citizens initiative will be on the ballot this fall to restore reasonable limits on donations by individuals to political campaigns.

But in case that ballot question fails to win approval from voters, Alaska needs a backup plan.

The state Legislature has been reluctant to pass a campaign finance limit since a federal court tossed out the last set of laws in 2021. And even if lawmakers manage to pass a campaign finance law, there’s a good chance the governor would veto the measure in his final months on the job — just in case he needs big money if he runs for another office someday.

So maybe we’re looking at this from the wrong angle: Limiting an individual’s ability, their right, to write obscenely large political donation checks is a hard political battle to win. It’s also a tough freedom-of-speech legal fight to overcome.

The answer could be in taxes. Let’s treat expensive political campaigns the same as we look at cigarettes and alcohol. Alaska taxes both to dissuade people from making unhealthy choices in life and to the help pay society’s costs of addiction. Living through multimillion-dollar political campaigns can be unhealthy, too.

The state could use the tax revenues to fund mental health programs, civics lessons in public schools, recreational programs to get people moving instead of hypnotized by campaign ads fed into their phones. The money could help fund libraries, community centers and even baseball fields where people could cheer the batters instead of battering each other over false and misleading campaign pitches.

It wouldn’t be a tax on free speech — that would be illegal. It would be a tax on unhealthy choices, like tobacco and alcohol, to compensate the state for the damages and to provide healthy alternatives.

Of course, there are some legal issues to resolve. Creative minds would need to figure out how to legally assess and collect a tax on contributors from out of state. Same thing for out-of-state donations that are spent on out-of-state services. And no doubt many elected officials and big spenders would oppose the tax.

I didn’t say it would be an easy tax, but think of the public health benefits. And think of the tax base: Campaign spending totaled more than $140 million for the 2020 and 2022 U.S. Senate races in Alaska, the 2022 election for governor, and the 2024 race for Alaska’s seat in the U.S. House. Candidates for governor in this year’s election already have raised more than $5 million, and spending is expected in the tens of millions of dollars for the campaign between Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan and Democratic challenger former U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola.

“Money is the mother’s milk of politics,” said Jim Lottsfeldt, an experienced Alaska campaign consultant, told the Alaska Beacon last week.

While that’s true, it’s no reason not to toss out the milk when it goes bad.