Posted on 06/03/2012 5:51:20 AM PDT by SmithL
Here's a primary prediction: Despite being seriously outspent by big tobacco, the Proposition 29 people get a last-minute infusion of campaign cash and squeak out a win for their measure tacking another $1-per-pack tax onto cigarettes.
No sooner does the new tax go into effect, my street contacts tell me, than Indian tribes will open tobacco shops at their casinos, where buyers can escape state taxes and buy cigarettes on the cheap.
Just as quickly, smugglers will start rolling in truckloads of smokes from Nevada, Arizona and Oregon, as street dealers realize there is more money to be made selling hot cigarettes than there is selling dope.
As for the other statewide measure before voters, I am adamantly opposed to Proposition 28 to modify term limits for California state legislators. As the No. 1 victim of term limits, I consider them an abomination and cannot support anything to make them more palatable. The only move I support is their total repeal.
Besides, changing lawmakers term limits from 14 to 12 years won't change anything but the life span of leadership positions.
. . .
I see that George Shultz and Condoleezza Rice endorsed Mitt Romney at his big Hillsborough fundraiser.
It just goes to show how thin the GOP bench is in California. No state officials. No big-city mayors. No real congressional stars.
Just George and Condoleezza, recycled again.
And after looking at the average age of the guests, I can see why Mitt doesn't bring up Social Security as an issue.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Willie Brown admitting that when taxes go up, people find ways to avoid them? Well, a stopped clock IS right once a day.
OTR drivers pick up in WV and establish
retirement accounts on both coasts
And revenues will fall.
Michigan Lottery sales, taxes on cigarettes and casino gambling plummet; Gov. Jennifer Granholm says revenue decline is ‘breathtaking’ (2009)
http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2009/03/michigan_lottery_sales_taxes_o.html
Cigarette smuggling certainly goes way back.
I worked in an auto plant in Ohio in the late 60s.
The parking lot always had guys who sold trunkfulls of low tax cigs from Kentucky.
I think the total price back then was 20 or 25 cents but the incentive was there.
When will they ever learn??
It's estimated 88% of smokers start as teens. If you don't care about teens that's fine but let me quote the great Newt from '97...
Civilization cannot survive with twelve-year-olds having babies, fifteen-year-olds shooting one another, seventeen-year-olds dying of AIDS, and eighteen-year-olds graduating with diplomas they cannot read.
I can’t believe a conservative supports a law which limits freedom of choice. From experience, any increase will not dull demand.....black mkt. will win
Wait...you mean Prohibitions create black markets?
DAMN! Someone should tell them!
This will kill innocent people.
Higher taxes will make smuggling profitable.
Local agencies will crack down on smuggling.
SWAT will raid the houses of “tobacco smugglers”.
As has been demonstrated time and again, they’ll eventually get the wrong house. Or, someone will “SWAT” someone else and tip off (lie to) the authorities, saying that there are contraband cigarettes present in someone’s dwelling.
If that person is lucky, only the dog will be shot before the SWAT team realizes they’re in the wrong place, or that they’ve been given bad information.
If they’re lucky.
We don’t need any more reasons for the government to be coming into homes at 3AM with guns blazing.
And all that for a product that NOT against the law to buy or use! Ridiculous!
In all fairness, there are many times when “dumb laws” are a boon to society, but only if they are dumb in the “right” way.
For example, people will certainly go out of their way to get “forbidden fruit”, and Americans have a long and respected tradition of smuggling, embargo-breaking, and unfair tax evasion going back to colonial days. It being unlawful just adds “spice” as far as they are concerned.
The only real problem emerges when the dumb law is done in the “wrong” way, which contributes to organized crime. Prohibitions on alcohol and drugs are the best example of this social disaster.
Americans aren’t particularly unique this way. If you have ever seen the play “Orpheus in Hades” by Offenbach, you can see the equivalent as was played out in France.
The bawdiness of the play was morally condemned by the Parisian police of the time, who made it a point to raid the show just after its grand closing number, which they considered obscene. However, no less than the King of France was a big fan, and would attend performances incognito.
Discovering this, the police refrained from raiding the play, which was a big disappointment to the audience that were expecting it, as the highlight of the show. Even the king was unhappy about it.
So after the police stopped raiding it, the actors went so far as to choreograph a fake police raid, with actors dressed as police, blowing police whistles and driving out the audience. This remains part of the choreography of the play, still performed today. Audiences are no longer kicked out, though.
Another $1-per-pack tax onto cigarettes.
Wonder why they don’t increase taxes on pot?.
Here in LA more people smoke pot than cigarettes,we have more pot shops than 7-11 stores.
Another $1-per-pack tax onto cigarettes.
Wonder why they don’t increase taxes on pot?.
Here in LA more people smoke pot than cigarettes,we have more pot shops than 7-11 stores.
which will lead to the hiring of more state employees to stop and search trucks as they head into California, leading to higher taxes for enforcement, .... and the beat goes on.
In other words, more of the same.
Something to think about.
It's a "non-partisan" office but incumbent mayor Jerry Sanders is a Republican.
He's right about term limits. As an experiment in improving government they have shown to be a catastrophic failure.
He’s not a conservative, he’s a statist smoke Nazi and his posts are all the same on this subject.
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