Posted on 12/28/2015 12:00:13 PM PST by lowbridge
New York is reaping the whirlwind of sky-high cigarette taxes with a wave of smuggling decimating the state's revenue.
New York holds the dubious honor of having the highest cigarette taxes in country, with the average pack of smokes in New York City costing as much as $10.60.
New York raised taxes on cigarettes to $4.35 in 2010 from $2.75. In total, cigarette taxes have increased by 190 percent since 2006. The sharp rise has resulted in a raft of unintended consequences which are dealing a significant blow to the state's finances.
New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli reports New York's revenue from cigarette taxes has plunged by $400 million over the past five years.
According to the The New York Post, a separate study by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine shows the state lost a hefty $1.3 billion in uncollected taxes each year because smokers switched to cheaper alternatives.
Smokers responded to higher prices not by shelling out more cash at the store but by turning to the black market, crossing state lines and buying cheaper brands, such as Seneca, from Native American outlets.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
Looks like they just lost $400 million on children’s healthcare.
HOW DARE THOSE EVIL SMOKERS BUY FROM SOMEWHERE ELSE AND DENY CHILDREN THEIR HEALTHCARE!
Awesome!
That Sharpton grade thinking mixes with De BlahBlahbio.
And raise the state income tax on rich people to 90%. Surely they will just pay out the nose and not leave the state.
Women and children were the next hardest hit.
The real killer for tax revenue is sales by Indian tribes. You don’t need to go black market (and pay the black-market markup); you only need to drive out to Long Island.
>> don’t worry....they’ll contend with this NOT by rolling back taxes but by stationing state troopers on the border roads and inspecting cars and trucks for “illegal†cigarettes... <<
Won’t help. Native American and interstate sales are legal. And the commerce clause prevents NYS from interfering in the interstate transportation of them. They’ll just raise the price of parking at the beach to $20/hour until no-one goes to the beach or the park either. Then they’ll charge you a $500 “service charge” to renew your drivers’ license, and require you to renew it every 3 months.
The whole purpose of this tax is to try and influence people's behavior. That's just the way Liberals are. Tax on Cigarettes is a regressive tax - it hurts to poorest people the most.
bttt
Indiana still does that.
And spend another 400 million in LEO overtime to catch the tax Dodgers.
That’s what they want you to believe.
Greedy, stupid idiots
Consequences Unintended and unknown ONLY to liberals.
Where there`s smoke,
there`s guns.
Gunsmoke
But Libs don’t believe in the laws of economics! (or any laws for that matter)
IIRC back when NH had a real governor (Meldrim Thompson), he evicted the Mass State Troopers who were watching for cars with Mass license plates at the NH border liquor stores.
Easy way to fix this. Just raise the tax.
Aw Ha! You understand the issue. Next up is enhanced enforcement including searches at the state borders and monitoring of credit card transactions. Maybe even a smoker registration and prescriptions?
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