Posted on 05/16/2004 6:45:26 PM PDT by Dan from Michigan
House may vote on 75-cent-per-pack increase in state cigarette tax
By AMY F. BAILEY
The Associated Press
5/16/2004, 7:54 a.m. ET
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The state House could vote this week to increase the state tax on cigarettes by 75 cents a pack.
It's the second time Republican House Speaker Rick Johnson of LeRoy has hinted that the chamber could take up legislation imposing the $2-per-pack tax. He said he decided against holding a vote on the bill last week after support from Democrats appeared unclear.
Bills need 55 votes to win approval in the 110-member House, rather than 56, because there is one vacancy.
Republicans, who have a 63-46 majority, want to put up a minimal number of votes for the higher cigarette tax because many philosophically disagree with increasing any tax.
Johnson has publicly supported increasing the cigarette tax as a way to prevent young people from starting to smoke. But he hasn't been able to bring many in his caucus to his side.
Republican Reps. Craig DeRoche of Novi and Mike Nofs of Battle Creek, who are among those vying to take over as speaker for Johnson in January, have said lawmakers should reduce state spending before they vote to increase the cigarette tax. Johnson can't run for re-election because of term limits.
Johnson thinks he has 15 Republican votes for the tax increase, spokesman Keith Ledbetter said. If so, all but six Democrats would have to vote for the measure for it to pass. But Democrats have their own objections to the tax increase, saying it would unfairly affect low-income adults who might not be able to quit smoking or afford smoking cessation aids.
House Minority Leader Dianne Byrum, D-Onondaga, is working on getting enough Democratic votes to win approval for the higher cigarette tax, spokesman Mark Fisk said.
"It's safe to say that the majority of our caucus will support the governor's budget plan, but it's still early in the process," he said.
Johnson has said repeatedly that House Democrats must supply a majority of the votes for the cigarette tax increase because it was proposed by Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm as a way to help eliminate the projected $1.3 billion shortfall in the state budget for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.
A higher cigarette tax would generate about $295 million, with $30 million raised for smoking cessation and chronic disease programs and the rest helping the state offer health care coverage to low-income residents through Medicaid.
A House GOP task force last week floated a $379.5 million package of cuts it said would be better than Granholm's proposals. It's unclear how many House members would support the GOP cuts.
The House this week also may take up two bills that would require school districts to emphasize abstinence in their sex education classes or face the loss of state funding.
The legislation would order parents to be more involved in their children's school sex education program and require that students learn the physical and emotional consequences of sexual activity.
Current Michigan law already requires public schools to adopt an abstinence-based curriculum. Parents are given the option of keeping their children out of sex education.
The state Senate could vote on bills designed to crack down on voyeurs who use cell phone cameras, electronic surveillance or other equipment to take obscene pictures of people without their knowledge or consent.
Two of the bills were introduced by state Rep. Fran Amos, R-Waterford, after she received complaints from women who said their pictures had been taken without their knowledge while changing in a health club locker room.
Several health clubs across the U.S. have banned or are considering a ban on cell phones with cameras as a result of similar incidents.
___
The cigarette tax bill is House Bill 5632; the sex education bills are Senate Bills 943 and 944; the voyeurism bills are House Bills 5692-93 and Senate Bill 918.
Say it isn't so,Jammer. You means smokers are actually going elsewhere and not reporting it to their states?
I find that hard to believe!!!!
p.s.---Wanna buy a bridge in Brooklyn?
lol. I may have, mind you, may have saved enough money on taxes to buy that bridge!
Love your posts.
I went past a back alley this morning and there was a group of smokers there,whispering. I managed to catch the words "Seneca","taxes" and "internet" and "Massachusetts sucks".
Wonder what on earth they were talking about?
Jammer - you've got me ROFLMBO!!!!!!!!!
Y'all come talk to me in 6 months after I've harvested my first tobacco crop!!!!!
That's good! At least the "stink" from the other RINO'S didn't rub off on him!
In most states, it's perfectly legal to bring in up to 2 cartons from another state or another country. They don't really say how often you can do that.
The illegal ones are the ones who bring in huge supplies to re-sell. Those do seem to earn a good living. :-)
from the New York Post 5/15/04
One-third blow off city cig tax
by David Seifman
A third of smo
kers here aren't paying the $ 1.50-a-pack cigareete tax-leading the city health commissioner to warn that smuggled smokes are "the single biggest threat" to the city's tough anti-smoking law.
"There has been a substantial increase in the purchase and consumption of nontaxed and smuggled cigarettes in New York City and other high taxed jurisdictions," Thomas Frieden told a Crain's New York breakfast forum.
"This is probably the single biggest threat in progress to tobacco control in New York City."
Cigareete sales in the five boroughs collapsed after the city increased its portion of the tax from 8c to $ 1.50 a pack on July 2, 2002.
In the next 12 months 182 million packs were sold-compared to 342 million in the previous 12 month period.
Sandra Mullin, a Health Department spokeswoman, said two-thirds of smokers who responded to a recent survey said they are buying their cigarettes legally.
"Others are purchasing cigarettes from sources such as Indian reservations, through the internet, from outside the U.S., from other states, through the mail," she said.
A pack of camels was selling for $ 6.75 yesterday at the smoke shop across from City Hall.
But on the internet, the upstate Seneca Indians were peddling a carton of 10 packs for $ 30.75 less than half the regular retail price.
Frieden called on the federal and state governments to enforce the law on Indian reservation sales. By law, city residents can purchase only two cartons of untaxed cigarettes at a time for personal use.
"The state does have the implementation authority," declared Frieden. "They went to the Supreme Court to get it and they're not using it."
end of article
a Site from which there is a link to the Native American's site (scroll down at the site):
http://www.adrenalineflow.com/pages/3/index.htm
Maine lawmakers shot the goose that laid the golden egg.
I have been rolling my own now for over three years. The taxes in Maine got to be rediculous. Plus, it's the American way to shop cheap!
Gov. King started this business of choking the smokers in Maine. So far, Baldacci hasn't been able to get a bill passed to raise the cigarette taxes again. He would if he could!
TELL me about it. Plus, Baldy brought in over 1,200 Somali's to Lewiston, Maine, and we have to pay for THEM! I tell you, this Maine Government needs a big flush like they did in California!
Tyranny and terrorism. Taxation without representation. The Mafia is running the new Nazi’s of America. Sounds extreme doesn’t it? Raising taxes on tobacco hasn’t done any good thus far, why continue to raise it? How do they justify it, by hiding behind “health” issues?
In nature this would be called exploiting weakness. Raise prices on tobacco to isolate addicts, make them a minority and then vote against them at every avenue. Let’s compare them to drug dealers, because that is exactly what they are now. DRUG DEALERS. They have total control over this DRUG and exploit those addicted to it for monetary gain, which benefits?
Has anyone, ANYONE seen the benefits of this taxation? People have been smoking for thousands of years. Large nations and civilizations have fallen also. I think we are witnessing America falling, rapidly. It’s disgusting. There is no one representing smokers, yet we are taxed above and beyond anyone else, which is testimony to what the government is making itself capable of. Everyone else is next. Once they take our bullets, guns and means to protect and stand up for what America was originally, it’s all over. The enemy has been elected, repeatedly, and not by True Americans. Thanks to television, it’s all controlled why WE THE PEOPLE are trained to ask, “Well, what can you do?”.
Good luck domesticated people, and prayers to you. If you don’t believe in God, then just accept warm regards and good wishes, as things look very “evil”. Though evil is a term relating to the entire concept of God, as is everything. Even not believing in God is testimony to an existence of something to ignore or make yourself greater than another state of being, which one would not contemplate without the concept of a creator. If not governed by God, then why be governed by anyone? Fear of evil, is respect for it.
I do not respect anyone who wishes to exploit dependence on any substance such as: tobacco, fossil fuels, sugars, land, shelter, medicine, transportation, money and employment. These are all the things being exploited by all forms of government to keep themselves in a position, that should not exist as a means of career income and retirement after only a few years of being elected/employed, by WE THE PEOPLE. Let alone getting bonuses for doing such a great job of robbing the American public of life, jobs, money, health, knowledge, and stability. Soon, everyone will be a criminal and only the “Get out of it” cards will be held by the ones making the rules,, or, wait, that’s already happening.
I’m done. I know, I carried on, but I had to vent.
It is time for Dan to be from Free Michigan. I still trying to figure out how a President fires a CEO.
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