Donate Just One
Each Month if You Will
Posted on 08/12/2011 7:27:34 AM PDT by KyGeezer
FRANKFORT — Revenue from Kentucky's cigarette tax is in free-fall, but more Kentuckians kicking the unhealthy habit isn't the only reason for the decline.
State officials say more and more people are turning to cheaper alternatives — little cigars and roll-your-own cigarettes — that aren't covered by the state's 60-cent-a-pack tax.
The little cigars look much like cigarettes but are wrapped in brown paper. They cost about $1.25 a pack, compared to about $3.25 for the cheapest pack of cigarettes.
The move to small cigars and roll-your-own cigarettes is a national trend. The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that states have lost $5 billion a year because people are using alternatives that have no state retail cigarette tax.
In Kentucky, state budget officials are predicting a 17.2 percent decline in revenue from the cigarette tax this fiscal year, which ends June 30. Last fiscal year, the state collected $262.4 million from cigarette taxes, down nearly 6 percent from 2010.
It's difficult to say how much of the decline is related directly to cheaper alternatives, but revenue officials say the loss from self-rolled cigarettes and small cigars is possibly in the millions of dollars.
When the legislature agreed to double the cigarette tax in 2009, the move was applauded by health advocates as a way to encourage more people to quit. It also bolstered the state's cash-strapped budget.
At first, cigarette tax revenue increased. But in June 2010, revenue from the tax began to dip.
At the same time, the state Department of Revenue, which collects tobacco-related taxes, saw retailers devote more shelf space to pipe tobacco and roll-your-own tobacco, said Richard Dobson, director of sales and excise taxes for the revenue department.
(Excerpt) Read more at kentucky.com ...
I’m going to add that to my list of pithy quotes. Spot-on.
June 2009. I was mightily pissed off, I can tell you... when I was out of work and poor, I rolled my own for much less money than ready-rolled cigs. Now the government has screwed that up.
July 2009 was when I began 'smoking' e-cigarettes (personal vaporizers) to get my nicotine fix. I haven't paid a cent in cigarette taxes for some time now and my lungs are feeling much better!
People in our family purchased an electric cigarette maker that resembles a Mr. Coffee machine. It makes a pack of cigarettes in about five minutes. If anyone is interested in the address or the website, let me know. We live in Pennsylvania, but the company is in California. Amazing savings that brings the cost of a carton of cigarettes down to about $12.00 including shipping.
IIRC it is against the law to grow tobacco in NC on land that doesn’t have an allotment.
All you tobacco addicts should slap on a patch and just smoke weed.
When ciggies go to $15 a pack we can laugh our glutes off and order in pizzas and chinese food with the savings.
Gotta love freedom.
Tobacco can be used as an insecticide, and also for deworming livestock. At one time it was even prescribed to people for getting rid of intestinal parasites.
Hmm, I’d read somewhere that the Feds could get you for that, when I’d considered growing my own. Guess they must have been talking about commercial operations.
I did know about the other uses though. The Army survival manual still advices eating a cigarette or two to get rid of intestinal parasites if you are out in the wild and can’t get proper medical attention. Of course, that will make you sick too, but as long as you only eat a small amount, it won’t kill you.
A RYO just opened up in my neighborhood. A "carton" (190-210 smokes) sell for $27, damn near half the price of a carton of Marlboros. The proprietors will blend the bulk tobacco to match the consumer's preferred brand. The only catch is you have to buy a cigarette case because you literally get a box of 200 cigarettes. No individual packs.
More power to them, I say. If I could find a black market dealer, some "Tony the small time mobster"-type to sell me cartons out of the trunk of his Chrysler, I'd give him my business in a second without losing a wink's sleep over it.
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