Good for you! 
Posted on 03/18/2004 6:21:13 AM PST by ClintonBeGone
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — State House Speaker Rick Johnson said Wednesday he supports increasing the state cigarette tax by 81 cents instead of the 75 cents proposed by Gov. Jennifer Granholm.
The Democratic governor proposed raising the tax on cigarettes from $1.25 to $2 per pack to help make up for lost federal dollars and encourage people to stop smoking.
Granholm's proposal would make Michigan's cigarette tax the nation's second-highest behind New Jersey's $2.05-per-pack tax.
Johnson, a Republican from LeRoy, said Michigan should have the highest tax on cigarettes in the country.
"Number 1!" he shouted from his desk toward reporters seated a short distance away on the floor of the House chamber.
Johnson said an 81-cent increase in the state cigarette tax would help prevent young people from starting to smoke.
Granholm spokeswoman Liz Boyd would say Wednesday only that the administration is looking forward to the Legislature approving a higher tax on cigarettes.
Raising cigarette taxes to help balance the state's bottom line isn't a new trick. Michigan raised its cigarette tax from 25 cents to 75 cents per pack in 1994 and from 75 cents to $1.25 per pack in 2002.
Johnson may have to go around House Commerce Committee Chairman Clark Bisbee, R-Jackson, to get the cigarette tax bill to the full House. Bisbee said this week he wouldn't allow his panel to send the bill to the full House.
"I am against the increase in sin taxes, as are the majority of Republicans on the committee," he said in a news release. "It is a financial nightmare for all businesses in the state, especially in our border counties."
Despite Bisbee's opposition, Johnson said he's committed to moving the bill to the House, where Republicans have a 63-46 majority and there is one vacancy.
"I'll do what I have to do to get the bill to the House floor," he said. "We'll look at that next week."
Senate Majority Leader Ken Sikkema, R-Wyoming, has not said whether the 75-cent cigarette tax hike would win the support of Senate Republicans who have a 22-16 majority in that chamber.
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The cigarette tax bill is House Bill 5632.
If your climate is right. The founders had a tea party, maybe a few tobacco plants in each yard would send a message.
Michigan used to be a big tobacco growing state. I visited the last cigar factory in the state (in Bay City) back in the '80s. I suspect it's been closed for a while. But, the fact remains that Michigan was at one point a leading tobacco growing state.
Are all politicians idiots or does it just seem that way?
It just seems that way. Seriously.
Look at the benefits -- from a pro-statist perspective.
Every "bad" result of this law will create more incentive for draconian Internet tax legislation, Internet monitoring (and even blocking) legislation, and, of course, other additional taxes "to make up for the shortfall."
It's really difficult to be too cyincal when looking at this crap. I'm not joking.
I am sending notice to every Republican member of our state house that I am fed up and will no long contribute my $'s to the Republican party.
Rick Johnson's proposal was the last straw.........
I think I got it: why is the price of gasoline so high? To make up for the lost revenue from cigarettes. heh!
And everyone has to pay..........
Good for you!
Just the logical progression of prohibition gal. Everything was "legal" 100 years ago, at this rate they'll be jailing you for tobacco in 15 years. For your own good and the betterment of society of coure. We have a filthy addiction and need help forced upon us.
Funny how I don't FEEL filthy! Growing up with it all around me and all.
It's interesting, to say the least............
The thing is, they lied. They used the promise of "lottery money going to education" to get the lottery law passed -- and then, they removed the same amount of money that had been going to education (from the general fund). The net result was lottery money going to the general fund -- which, if they'd been honest about it from the start -- would have meant the lottery wouldn't have become law.
It's not the amount, it's the idea. They lied to get what they wanted -- and, they got away with it, with no penalty.
These bastards are so unbelieveably crooked...
But if we're spending about 50 times more on education now than we did when the lottery passed, and the total revenue of the lottery could only fund schools for 2 weeks, it's more than a wash.
If they took out X amount of dollars of the funding and replaced it with 10 time X, how can you say they're not keeping their word?
But here's a link to help you out:
And Detroit was the second leading cigar manufacturing city in the country. It was dubbed "Tampa of the North" and many immigrant women, mostly eastern European, were employed rolling cigars in the city's factories around the turn of the century.
Regards, Lenny
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