City smokers to start paying $7 a pack today

News Radio 88 ^ | 7/1/02

[areafiftyone]

(New York-AP) -- It's costly to be a smoker in New York City now.

Beginning today, cigarette smokers in the city will pay more than seven dollars a pack for many major brands. The Bloomberg administration's new tax on cigarettes is expected to raise an additional 111 (M) million dollars of revenue this year.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the tax will prevent 50-thousand deaths -- including over 33-thousand premature deaths among city children.

The law raises the city tax on cigarettes from eight cents a pack to one dollar and 50 cents a pack.

Smokers in New York City will now pay more than double the national average for cigarettes.

Critics of the new tax say consumers could avoid the taxes by buying cigarettes over the Internet, in nearby states or from Indian reservations and from the underground market.

The mayor spent months negotiating with the City Council over how to close a five (B) billion dollar budget gap.

Besides the new cigarette tax, new fees were approved for cell phones and parking tickets for the budget year -- which begins today.<

[RabidBartender]

How long until Hilda-ry introduces a bill that will give 'cigarette vouchers' to welfare recipients and single mothers?

[Jn316]

Ouch. Glad I don't smoke (;-)

If that's not inspiration to quit...I suppose smokers will just stock up in another state.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

The last pack I bought cost $.55

[aruanan]

The Bloomberg administration's new tax on cigarettes is expected to raise an additional 111 (M) million dollars of revenue this year.

This should read: The Bloomberg administration's new tax on cigarettes is expected to raise an additional 111 (M) million dollars of revenue this year for organized crime selling bootleg cigarettes and for cigarette merchants in surrounding states.

[areafiftyone]

I don't smoke either. Hate the smell! But I feel bad for people who do.

[Movemout]

When I was in the Army you could buy a carton for $2.50 at the commissary. Some cartons had a rebate coupon for a dollar off. Times have changed for the worse.

[apillar]

The title of this story should be:

City Smokers to start driving to New Jersey to buy their cigarettes today

[AppyPappy]

A tax on the poor.

[self_evident]

Uhmmm.... Care to divulge your source?

[Fred Mertz]

I paid $9.53 for my last carton (10 packs) of smokes.

Maybe I should go into the bootleg or black market business when I visit NYC.

[DETAILER]

Would it be legal for me to buy cigarrettes in my own town, then take them to NY and sell them to someone? A private sale?

[katana]

Bingo ! You are exactly right. All this will do is fill the pockets of the Mafia and anyone else who can run a truck from the Carolinas.

[Severa]

Don't know what the going rate is nationwide but here in VA Beach (right next door to NAS Oceana) the rate is about $3 for a pack of Marlboros.

I see now why a friend of mine in KY started buying Top tobacco and rolling his own cigarettes.

[mountaineer]

The Dems knew what they were doing when they bought votes for Gore in Milwaukee with cartons of cigarettes.

[Dog Gone]

The black market will have a field day. Tax receipts from cigarette sales will probably drop as smokers find ways, legal or otherwise, to circumvent this ridiculous tax.

It was this kind of thing that caused the Boston Tea Party.

[RightOnline]

For anyone left who still thinks that Bloomberg is actually a "Republican".

[Publius6961]

The Bloomberg administration's new tax on cigarettes is expected to raise an additional 111 (M) million dollars of revenue this year.

Mr. Bloomberg desperately needs to revisit the results of the boat "luxury" tax.
The only unanswered question at this point is how much will tobaco revenues plummet?

[PeterPrinciple]

Just to put this in perspective, can anyone tell me the cost of tax vs the cost of the product for tea at the time of the boston tea party?

I don't smoke either but this is getting bad.

[eddie willers]

Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the tax will prevent 50-thousand deaths -- including over 33-thousand premature deaths among city children

I know....
I see all those 3 year olds buying all those cartons and I'm thinking, "They'll be dead before they're 15."

Oh the humanity.
(and silly reporting)