[Redbob]

Sure will increase traffic into adjoining states, Louisiana especially!
The difference in TAX being what, $21 a carton???

[xowboy]

Thee giant sucking sound you hear....

[xowboy]

“What the governor said was that if the choice was between taxing poison and taxing property, he’d go with taxing poison,” said Perry spokesman Robert Black"

Isn't this noble of him. Did the idea of cutting spending ever occur to him?

[TXBlair]

Oh blechh. True, I didn't bother reading the article, but sheesh. This kind of taxing-us-into-political-correctness makes me want to take up smoking pronto!

[llevrok]

So let's see. The "concept" is to raise taxes to discourage smoking.

But outlaw tobacco altogether and lose all the taxes?

Blasphemy !

[Arnold Zephel]

...Texas smokers will start paying Jan. 1 as part of the sweeping overhaul of the state’s school finance system...

Wasn't the lottery supposed solve the funding of education problem once and for all? That was what the politicians were saying when they were proposing and promoting the lottery to Texans.

There will never be enough money for education, because it is an easy sell to say we need to increase taxes for the kids. People eat it up.

[Son House]

http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxfreedomday/

Quote "Tax Freedom Day® will fall on April 26 in 2006, according to the Tax Foundation’s annual calculation using the latest government data on income and taxes. (Click here to read the full study).

“Tax freedom will come three days later in 2006 than it did in 2005,” said Tax Foundation President Scott A. Hodge, “and fully 10 days later than in 2003 and 2004 when a combination of slow income growth and tax cuts caused Tax Freedom Day to arrive comparatively early, on April 16.”

However, 2006’s Tax Freedom Day is still considerably earlier than it was in 2000, when the economic boom, the tech bubble and higher tax rates pushed tax burdens to a record high, and Tax Freedom Day was postponed until May 3.
" endQuote

And for you smokers, guess when tax freedom day is?

Low tax rates for all,

or we are all going to end up with a tax freedom day in November.

[Westlander]

Problem Solved Easily.
http://www.ryocigarette.com/excelplatinum.html

[FFIGHTER]

Grow and roll your own.

[SheLion]

Texas Information

Comparing Excise Taxes on Cigarettes, Beer and Wine

Number of six-packs of beer that must be sold in Texas to produce the same state excise tax revenue generated by one carton of cigarettes: 36.8


Number of bottles of wine that must be sold in Texas to produce the same state excise tax revenue generated by one carton of cigarettes: 101.4


Excise Taxes        Sales Taxes       Tobacco Settlement Payments    Total Smoker Payments

507,341,000           $261,377,000         $519,900,000                               $1,288,618,000

TOTAL SMOKER CIGARETTE PAYMENTS TO TEXAS FY2005

Per year:        $1,288,618,000

Per day:          $       3,528,044

Per hour:        $          147,002

Per minute:    $              2,450   

Per second:   $                  41       

  

 CIGARETTES DON’T PAY TAXES – TEXAS SMOKERS DO!!

[Liberty Valance]

Texas may very well be a GOP state but it's no longer a conservative state.

[Bonaparte]

“We know exactly what will happen once this tax takes effect,” Gray said. “There will be a slight reduction in cigarette consumption. But more importantly, it will discourage young people who don’t smoke from ever starting. Kids are so much more price-sensitive than adults are..."

You don't know squat, Mr. Gray. Everybody will be buying cheap and tax-free from the online Indian reservation smokeshops. Because Texas got greedy and tried to force people to give up their tobacco, they will wind up forfeiting the revenue they would have continued to reap.

[FlingWingFlyer]

In Arizona, the dummies voted in a nanny state program that teaches women how to breast feed their kids. Everybody went into the booth on November 7th wanting those warm fuzzies by voting for the proposition. Yesterday, they were all was bitching about the EIGHTY CENTS per pack cigarette increase. I went into a couple Circle K convenience stores that had posted signs saying not to bitch at the clerk and they listed the phone number to the Arizona Revenue Department. The morons should have read the fine print in the proposition before voting it in. Smokers are now going to subsidize these breast feeding classes for "mothers." I heard that this "tax" is going to bring in not millions, but billions for the nanny staters. Once again, the "informed" masses outsmarted themselves. What a bunch of idiots.

[mysterio]

Make it illegal. Put it to a consensus, and make those who vote to make it illegal put down their addresses. Send the zealots a bill for the difference. Let the black market reap the profits. That's my opinion.

[SheLion]

Both are talking about the $1 increase in the tax on a pack of cigarettes that Texas smokers will start paying Jan. 1 as part of the sweeping overhaul of the state’s school finance system enacted by lawmakers in the spring. It’s the first increase in the state’s levy on tobacco products since 1991 and is expected to generate about $700 million a year until smoking rates begin dropping off, expected in 2010.

So why are only 20-30% of the constituents forced to pay for the above instead of every citizen in Texas?  Why is the burden being placed on smokers?

I thought Texas wanted a Smoke Free State?  They talk out of both sides of their dirty mouths.........banning smokers, controlling smokers and restricting smokers, yet all the while, they can't balance a state budget withOUT the smokers.

[SheLion]

Attention Texas Smokers:

Can't stand the high taxes?

Afraid to order off of the Internet?

Then start rolling your own!!! I find everything but the machine downtown at the local Smoke Shop.  Also, Rite Aid and grocery stores also sell the bags of tobacco and the filtered tubes.

I roll out a beautiful carton for a little under $8 dollars.  Premiums in my state are now up to $45-$50 a carton.  Can you imagine the money I have saved over the past 4 years since I now roll my own?  It's mind boggling.

under $50.00

Check StuffYourOwn for prices on tobacco

$1.99 for 200 filtered tubes

Make your own cigarettes for as low as $6.99 per Carton! Smoke Quality FILTERED cigarettes that you make yourself using cigarette tubes (like a cigarette without the Cigarette tobacco), our cigarette making machines, and our "roll your own" cigarette tobacco.


-Stop Paying High Cigarette Taxes
-So Much Easier than "Roll Your Own" cigarettes!

and

Smokers United

Roll Your Own Tobacco Store

Roll Your Own Magazine

[Hydroshock]

Welcome to the state of Taxes (please note new correct spelling)

[MamaTexan]

and is expected to generate about $700 million a year until smoking rates begin dropping off, expected in 2010.

Healthy People 2010 is part of the UN agenda

--------------------------

Gov. Rick Perry, who was among those resisting a new tax on tobacco even as the state faced a $9.9 billion budget shortfall four years ago, embraced the idea as part of the school finance package.

Texas Has At Least $53.77 Billion In Surpluses as per the 2003 Report.

This is how all government screams 'mo money' while rolling in it.

They have the beginning years budget, subtract what they use, and any 'leftovers' are shuttled into accounts while the books are again zeroed out for the next year.

It's why they ALWAYS complain that the government is 'broke'.

[Caipirabob]

I wouldn't even consider participating in this market.

[mylife]

Heres a novel idea, how about taxing parents based on the number of children they have enrolled in the local school system.