[Tumbleweed_Connection]

With its new $1.425-per-pack tax

I don't support anti-smoking measures, but wouldn't it be interesting if a conservative proposed legislation designed to ban cigarettes?

"If I were a betting man," said Department of Revenue spokesman Mike Gowrylow, "I'd bet that the level of evasion will increase."

Imagine "cheating" to the point where "tax revenues" drop below "acceptable levels" and government either defining purchase price or taking over marketing.

[HRC]

I can just see the re-write of the movie Untouchables. Where instead of the barrel busting scenes in the warehouses, we see Politically Correct Police Commissioners arguing about what to do with the illegal cigarettes. Since they cant burn them because of the negative health effects of second hand smoke. The PC Police chief arguing that burning that much tobacco at one time will cause the ozone layer to disappear. The whole scene ultimately ending in a confiscated warehouse and the cigarettes being stolen and sold again. Then the whole scene repeats until the entire stockpile is gone.

[DWSUWF]

The marketplace has a collective wisdom about it...

When prices are too high, people won't buy, or they'll scale their purchases back.

But when taxes are unacceptably high, people in large numbers will simply find a way to thumb their noses at them.

The same is true of laws...

People will obey laws they regard as just and reasonable.

They'll break laws that they don't hold in this regard.

Governments -ultimately- have only as much power as we allow them to have. Even the most advanced, the most evil and draconian governments the world has ever known are vulnerable to this final judgement.

[Still Thinking]

Is Jeff at all conscience-stricken that he's cheating the state? "I have no problem with it," he says.

Is the state conscience-stricken that it is trying to cheat Jeff?

[RANGERAIRBORNE]

This is funny stuff! Especially the state "economists" who have NO IDEA what the result of a huge tax increase on tobacco will be. What are these parasites good for, anyway? My old pal Vinnie from Brooklyn could tell them EXACTLY what the result will be- smuggling, evasion, and further strengthening of organized crime.

[mlocher]

$1.425 per pack tax

our government does not want to see smoking end. if it does, then tobacco farmers will be hurt, but more importantly, another source of income will dry up -- sin tax. the liberal ploy here is to pit smokers against non-smokers. the non-smokers feel justified in helping save someone's life and they figure the smoker 'deserves' to pay the tax anyway.

hey, it has worked. look at all the responses on the various threads about smoking the last few days. an awful lot of freepers want to punish smokers...

[Just another Joe]

Puff

[Just another Joe]

Or they can do like I did. I now stuff my own cigarettes.
Tastes better, lasts longer, and is cheaper by AT LEAST half. And I use a semi pricey tobacco.

[MrBambaLaMamba]

Hmmm, "...$1.425-per-pack tax

Gubmint say smoking bad fa ya,
Gubmint say smoking raise 'heathcare' costs,
Gubmint say stop smoking,
Gubmint say "We make it hard fa ya to smoke",

Assuming everyone stops smoking, where is this '$130 million a year, most of it dedicated to improving health care for low-income people' going to come from?

[qwert]

I have not bought my smokes from a store (In Georgia) in over 2 years. Where I go, I get smoke's by the CASE and give them (wink, wink, nudge, nudge,) to my neighbors. So far I have over 250 friends, whom I do a favor for. I figure all they need to do in Ga. is to raise taxes one more time and I will have 500 new friends.. God how I love capitalism....

[sailrabbit]

$15 shipped

[pcl]

I live in California where taxes have put the average price of carton of brand name cigarette at over $50 a carton. I have not bought cigarettes in California in over three years. I buy my cigarettes off the internet. The everage price is less than $25 a carton.

The internet is wonderful!

[FormerLib]

Odd, some folks would argue that there won't be any smuggling or black market trafficing (with the attending violence when competion for those markets starts to build) of legal products. But sure as there are bootleggers in wet counties, that just isn't so.

[Fraulein]

Every time the Edgewood woman and Jeff cheat, they are committing a gross misdemeanor that is technically punishable by a $5,000 fine and a year in jail, plus civil penalties.

I don't understand. It's illegal to buy smokes from the tribal and online shops?

[Hank Rearden]

I love this! Undermining Big Mommy Government is always a good thing, especially when you get to strangle their income flow by doing so.

Almost makes me want to take up smoking, just to buy them Injun ciggies.

[Junior]

Gee, tax revolts. Sort of an American tradition, ain't it?..

[Ditto]

Imagine "cheating" to the point where "tax revenues" drop below "acceptable levels" and government either defining purchase price or taking over marketing.

It happened in Canada back in the 80s. They pushed the tax up to where a pack cost $7 each. They actually had a drop in revenues (a big black market grew out of nowhere) and the good liberals decided to 'roll' back the taxes. Seems they were more interested in tax revenues than in protecting the 'children' from those evil cigarettes. The same will happen in Washington.

[biblewonk]

Only a very serious smoker would compare cigarette tax to all hell.

[pcl]

California's contraband problem now accounts for $400 million a year in missing revenue.

They used to tell us the tax was about health. Now they admit that it all about REVENUE. No surprise here.

[100%FEDUP]

What's next for the state of Washington?
Search points at every road leading to and from the state?
Car searches?
Shakedowns?
Or will the IRS appoint another Elliot Ness to track down black market tobacco vendors?

Big Brother has come but not in the form of a Republican as so many socialists have led us to believe!

Big Brother has come in the form of the DNC, special interest groups such as MADD and those idiots going by the name of The Truth!

I'm sure everyone has seen the ads The Truth puts out, what would happen if someone did the same types of ads about the dangers of HIV transmission? The ACLU, GLADD and every other SI group would be screaming for a ban.

[deport]

This table is for 2001 but it's a good indicator...... To this you need to add the Federal tax of $3.40 per carton....

STATE EXCISE TAX RATES ON CIGARETTES
(January 1, 2001)

STATE	TAX RATE (¢ per pack)	RANK		STATE	TAX RATE (¢ per pack)	RANK
Alabama (1)	16.5	43		Nebraska	34	26
Alaska	100	2		Nevada	35	25
Arizona	58	15		New Hampshire	52	17
Arkansas (2)	31.5	29		New Jersey	80	6
California	87	4		New Mexico	21	37
Colorado	20	38		New York (1)	111	1
Connecticut	50	19		North Carolina	5	49
Delaware	24	32		North Dakota	44	21
Florida	33.9	27		Ohio	24	32
Georgia	12	46		Oklahoma	23	36
Hawaii	100	2		Oregon	68	11
Idaho	28	31		Pennsylvania	31	30
Illinois (1)	58	15		Rhode Island	71	10
Indiana	15.5	44		South Carolina	7	48
Iowa	36	24		South Dakota	33	28
Kansas	24	32		Tennessee (1) (2)	13	45
Kentucky (2)	3	50		Texas	41	23
Louisiana	24	32		Utah	51.5	18
Maine	74	9		Vermont	44	21
Maryland	66	12		Virginia (1)	2.5	51
Massachusetts	76	7		Washington	82.5	5
Michigan	75	8		West Virginia	17	41
Minnesota	48	20		Wisconsin	59	13
Mississippi	18	39		Wyoming	12	46
Missouri (1)	17	41		Dist. of Columbia	65	13
Montana	18	39
				U. S. Median	34.0

 

Source: Compiled by FTA from various sources
(1) Counties and cities may impose an additional tax on a pack of cigarettes in AL, 1¢ to 6¢; IL, 10¢ to
(2) Dealers pay an additional enforcement and administrative fee of 0.1¢ per pack in KY and 0.05¢ in TN. In AR, a $1.25/1,000 cigarette fee is imposed.

State Tax/Legislator information includes Federal tax