[SheLion]

I have been living for this!  This $448 million paid into the state of Maine is paid for by Maine smokers who pay taxes on cigarettes!

And if this money stops coming into Maine, guess who loses their cushy jobs?  The Partnership for a Tobacco Free Maine!  Tickles me to no end.

We won't have to put up with their phony teenaged ads on TV anymore, and the race car teams and tracks around the state will be without a sponsor.  Tough.  Maine smokers are more then fed up with all the control, bans and restrictions put upon us.  I know I for one won't feel one pang of pain for the state after what they have done to 25-30% of Maine people who smoke. 

Serves the state right!  They say they want a Tobacco Free Maine, yet they can't balance their damn budget without the taxes on Maine cigarettes.  Don't let the lawmakers fool you!  This money is being paid solely by Maine smokers.  Not the Government and NOT Big Tobacco. 

[SheLion]

   $2.00 taxes on one pack of cigarettes!

[sgtbono2002]

Legal;ised extortion . Thats what this tobacco payout is.

[Kakaze]

SheLion, I had the pleasure of talking to a social worker / abuse councilor here this past weekend. ( just a social meeting folks and shes really a nice lady )

She was expousing how fantastic indiana's tobacco campaign has been and how her work within the state legislator had helped lead to these "improvements'. When I asked her who's taxes she was going to raise after she had eliminated smokers who now pay these taxes for the children.........she was at a loss, never had thought past that. In fact she said well there are other sin taxes we can use, there are alot of health issues we can use to reclaim that money and "of course make everyone healthier".

I asked what she meant i.e. alcohol or fast food or what? With a smile she said that I would be amazed at how the indiana legislator was going to RESTRUCTURE our lives in the next 2-3 years. She was absolutely beaming

All I could think was thank god I'm moving to Texas.

[SheLion]

Maine Rights:
A public yahoo group for anyone who wants to talk about the Maine smoking ban situation.

Maine Smokers Rights
Check it out if you plan on vacationing in Maine and if you are a smoker.

Outside decks for smokers in northern Maine just won't cut it!
Bravo's Mexican Restaurant in Augusta is one outlet that built a patio specially to accommodate smokers.

Taverns brace for smoking ban in different ways.

Tobacco Taxes

Maine's excise tax per pack of cigarettes: $1.000
Maine's excise tax collection for the
fiscal year ending June 2002: $95,006,000

Sales tax on tobacco products: 5.00%

Federal excise tax per pack of cigarettes: $0.39
Total federal excise tax collections in fiscal year 2002: $7,512,700,000

 

Comparing Excise Taxes on Cigarettes, Beer and Wine

Number of six-packs of beer that must be sold in Maine to produce the same state excise tax revenue generated by one carton of cigarettes: 50.8

Number of bottles of wine that must be sold in Maine to produce the same state excise tax revenue generated by one carton of cigarettes: 84.1

Master Settlement Agreement Payments To Date

$182,122,188 has been paid to Maine since the Master Settlement Agreement was signed on November 23, 1998.

[wita]

Not a smoker, but neither am I an anti smoking Nazi. Anyone with half a brain, knows that the famous tobacco settlement which promised billions of dollars to states, could not be funded by profits alone.

The number of smokers decreasing and the market share and profits of tobacco companies shrinking or at best stabilized, and even if that were not the case, what company in their right mind thinks it could sustain that kind of unprofitable theft for any length of time without screaming like a stuck pig or going under, or offshore.

I thought the whole case against the tobacco companies was simply piling on by attorneys general and sympathetic courts. It smelled of a railroad job and about as unconstitutional as anything I had seen. The only question was who is next in line for destruction.

[demkicker]

I'm a non smoker and love this news!

[sure_fine]

puff ping

[CPOSharky]

Typical liberal shortsightedness.

Sue a manufacturer of a legal product for big bucks.

Tax the daylights out of it.

Prohibit it's use wherever it can.

Complain because the settlement money is not coming in.

[Madame Dufarge]

"There will be a way to show that Maine is doing everything it's supposed to do

"Maine has been just the bestest Nazis ever!"