around to their "usual customers" and sell 'em out of the back.
They were "Goodfellas" ...
Posted on 12/13/2015 5:45:30 AM PST by jalisco555
SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The number of state-taxed cigarette packs sold in New York has plummeted by 54 percent in the past decade.
That's far outpacing the 19 percent decline in New Yorkers who have quit smoking over the same time.
Instead, more smokers are buying cigarettes in ways that avoid New York's $4.35 per pack tax, the highest in the nation. They cross state lines, shop from black market vendors and travel to Native American outlets to save $6 per pack or more, experts say.
New York is losing big. In the past five years, the state's cigarette tax collections have dropped by about $400 million, according to data and estimates from the office of state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.
Consider: A pack of Marlboro Reds bought in the town of Onondaga recently cost $10.58. That includes a state tax of $4.35 per pack, a federal excise tax of $1.01 per pack, and 8 percent sales tax of 78 cents.
Just down Route 11, the Onondaga Nation runs a small tobacco store with a 24-hour drive-through. There, a pack of Senecas costs just $4. That likely includes that $1.01 federal excise tax, according to several experts.
(Excerpt) Read more at syracuse.com ...
Yup. I live in NY, and I don’t know a single person who buys his cigarettes in a store.
In the City, there are vans driven by guys with names like “Vinnie the Kneebuster” who go around to their “usual customers” and sell ‘em out of the back.
There are others who travel down to Delaware, Virginia, or Pennsylvania once a month.
People are selling loosies in some neighborhoods.
But buying cigs from a store? I only ever see people get a pack at a time — MAYBE — because they haven’t gotten around to doing one of the above that day. I haven’t seen someone purchase a carton from a store in...hell...in YEARS.
The state did this to itself. It should be made to live with the consequences.
Regards,
Well, the obvious problem is lax cigarette taxes elsewhere, so the clear mandate is to have every other jurisdiction in the land have identical cigarette taxes as NYC does. And gun laws. And bans on trans fats. And parking prices - we wouldn’t want anyone to just park somewhere else either, would we?
The sale of southern state cigarettes is a revenue stream for organized crime, as well.
Over the 30 yrs I have lived since I quit in 1985 or so I have saved just a tad under $110,000 using an average price of $5.00 per pack and 2 packs per day.
Imagine, $110,000 PLUS the health benefits of being smoke free.
We drove to and from Florida earlier this year.We stopped,out of curiosity,at a huge tobacco store somewhere along I-95 in NC...IIRC it's pretty famous.One might suspect that its prices attract smokers living in the Northeast but,IIRC,they had a limit as to how many cartons you could buy.I think the clerk said that the tobacco companies required it.
But since there has only been a 54% decrease in sales that result in tax being paid to the state, that must mean that tourists are the only ones buying cigs in a store. And that actually makes sense, because what tourist wants to meet Vinnie the Kneebuster in an alley?
Cigs in my state are much lower taxed but the cost/carton has went from 32 bucks to 38. I bought a cig making machine and the tobacco and filtered tubes and am spending slightly less than 15 per carton. Bought the machine at a yard sale from a guy who quit for 5 bucks. I had never seen one and there was no book with it, but I figured it out. Top-O-Matic is the brand name.
Stats clearly show that the lower you are on the country's socio-economic ladder the more likely you are to smoke (tobacco).
To give a practical example...I worked for decades at a major (well known) hospital.When I started about half of the physicians,and two-thirds of the nurses,with whom I worked smoked.When I left a few years back *none* of the physicians,and no more than a quarter of the nurses,smoked.
Of course the health care factor probably played a role but it's also true that physicians are at the top of that ladder and nurses make pretty good money as well.
Plus, they're probably unaware of the Indian reservation exemption.
I’m certainly no advocate for smoking. Quite the opposite in fact. But I’m always amused when leftists are astonished that their tax projections never pan out and that high taxes lead to tax avoidance. Yet they never learn.
****In the City, there are vans driven by guys with names like “Vinnie the Kneebuster†who go around to their “usual customers†and sell ‘em out of the back.****
I kinda wonder if all this high tax system is, is nothing more than a kickback scheme where cops “look the other way” for a price that is shared with the politicians.
Thanks New York! Your volume keeps my prices down.
Good thing we have Wal-Mart, or we'd be making weekly runs to China!
I alsp live in TAXachusetts. On my way to Maine to visit family, I stopped in the Rte 95 New Hampshire Booze-a-porium for wine to bring.
As I walked through the parking lot, I noticed something I didn’t understand. Entering, I located a man who appeared to be a manager of some level.
I asked him why New Hampshire residents were not allowed to make purchases in his store. When he didn’t understand, I explained that but for 2 cars from Connecticut, there were only cars from Massachusetts. I’d seen NONE from New Hampshire.
He quietly smiled at me and nodded.
Add to that the health costs of not being smoke-free.
A word to the wise is sufficient.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.