Posted on 03/21/2009 5:38:13 AM PDT by reaganaut1
ATLANTA — Mississippi’s tax on cigarettes, at 18 cents a pack the nation’s third-lowest, has not been raised since 1985. Gov. Haley Barbour, a former tobacco lobbyist, has long opposed an increase.
But this year, state lawmakers have gone from giving little thought to a tobacco tax increase to arguing over how much the tax should go up and where the money should go.
And they are not alone. Budget shortfalls are pushing more than 20 states to look to tobacco for revenue, even those that have long been loath to touch cigarette taxes.
In the South, where such taxes have been lower than in the rest of the country, Arkansas has nearly doubled its tax, to $1.15 a pack, and Kentucky’s will double, to 60 cents, on April 1.
Increases are also under consideration in other tobacco-growing states like North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. With estimated state budget shortfalls nearing $50 billion, opponents of smoking see an opportunity to make headway with the most reluctant lawmakers.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Last I knew an ounce of pot was over $100. You aren’t going to reduce crime by driving the price up even more. All legalization and taxation will do is feed the beast and create more laws.
Better to just decriminalize it and impose high fines.
Raising cigarette taxes too high encourages black market sales. If the government becomes just a means of robbing Peter to pay Paul, evading taxes is morally justified.
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Well over 30% of cigarettes purchased in Canada are black Market bootlegged...the same will happen in the states, it’s already happening in NYC.
And then the tax payers will need to fund the programs to battle bootleggers who are only in business because of the Government tax burden.
If you tax it~ They will come.
The tobacco addicts (of which I was one for 20 yrs) should be thankful they aren't yet walking in my shoes, which I hope they never will re: national tobacco policy.
After 40 years of smoking i got sick and tired of being taxed period thanks to Barry Os second cousin Deval the one term wonder Patric I quit. i don’t buy lottery tics and now i buy my gas in another state. the thing that kills me is the fact the tax was raised was to go to health care for smoking related illnesses hey to this date not one dime has gone there and it has been a year i just celebrated a year smoke free
“pres. sh-t head doesn’t pay state cig tax. He is commander chief of the military so they are bought at a millitary facility.No state tax.”
Damn...you’re right, I totally forgot about that little fact.
New Flash: Today government outlawed government to reduce crime.
New Flash: Today government outlawed government to reduce crime.
Besides, Aroostok, half The County is making a living off it now.
;O)
And growing your own supply of weed is a whole lot easier than home brewing the two thirty packs I go through every week.
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