[Bella_Bru]

There are no studies yet to determine whether New Yorkers are quitting smoking or simply taking other avenues to fix their nicotine cravings, such as online mail order buys or trips out of town.

Let's see...we have seen several articles on the "evil" smokers "smuggling" smokes in from other states....so I think I know the answer to this one.

[grania]

So, rich commuters coming to their jobs from homes in New Jersey or Connecticut can buy cheaper cigarettes every day, at home. And those not so fortunate have to make other arrangements to get their cigarettes. And those less aware of those options (probably the most needy) end up paying the tax for everyone else...and it works because overall the revenues increase.

And the governments will still want their tobacco settlement money because of the financial burden smokers cause. Even though governments almost always increase the cigarette tax when the budget needs balancing.

Maybe, just maybe, sometime a government will do something really radical. I'm thinking maybe spend less to balance the budget?

[TomGuy]

There are no studies yet to determine whether New Yorkers are quitting smoking or simply taking other avenues to fix their nicotine cravings, such as online mail order buys or trips out of town.

So, they will need probably a $40 million study to determine which--quitting or taking other avenues--thus, eating up the original intent of the tax to increase revenues. Government in action.

[ken5050]

Well, obviously, since the new tax has been so successful inthat it has cut cigarette sales by 50%, they should immediately double the tax again......at that rate, no one in NYC will be smoking by year's end..

[YOMO]

Cigarette sales in New York plummeted almost 50 percent in July .........The new tax, which Mayor Michael Bloomberg supported to help close a record budget gap.............There are no studies yet to determine whether New Yorkers are quitting smoking or simply taking other avenues to fix their nicotine cravings, such as online mail order buys or trips out of town.........

Cigarette sales drop not predicted by politicans? I don't think so. So now where are they going to make up the BUDGET DEFICIT? It figures that they would need a study to figure out when you tax the $hit out of a product finally people will stop buying a legal product. OK guys what is next to be taxed?

[goldstategop]

Mayor Bloomberg and NY's liberals realized the increased tobacco taxes were costing the city MORE revenue than they were supposed to be raking in for it. Hence the cut in the taxes. Which means city revenues should go UP for a change. I guess its too much for other liberals, addicted to the idea tax increases are the only way out of a budget hole, to cotton onto the fact cutting taxes actually INCREASES government revenues. But hey let's not give em any ideas, shall we? ;-)

[Fraulein]

Cigarette Smuggling

[Born to Conserve]

Ah, payback! For all the smoke blown in my face, for all the cigarette butts and litter I have to see -- taxes are universally dumb, but I am enjoying watching the smokers squirm. If, as a group, they had been a little more considerate, maybe I would feel different, but they are almost perfectly selfish, so, ENJOY!

[randita]

The new tax, which Mayor Michael Bloomberg supported to help close a record budget gap, drove the price of some name brands to more than $7 per pack.

Does this mean that the tax will be rescinded once the budget gap is closed? Yeah...

I just ran across a couple of women from NY stocking up on cigs here in PA. They told me that a carton of cigs costs over $70 in NY. Surprisingly, they said that the cheapest cigs in the Middle Atlantic region can be purchased in the people's republik of MD.

[Linda Liberty]

Bloomberg inherited a deficit in the billions from Giuliani, a sizeable fraction of the budget. I believe he has cut spending significantly, making up a sizeable portion of the shortfall with cuts. As far as I can see, he's been quite responsible for a politician, and I don't often say anything positive about politicians. He's made serious efforts to avoid raising taxes any more than he had too.

I do think the amounts collected by the city in tobacco tax will go down though as the black market gets more organized, but probably never get lower than what they were collecting before this tax increase.

[gridlock]

My uncle lived in a "Dry County" in Arkansas, and had to drive 60 miles each way to the county line to buy beer. And it was illegal to carry more than one six pack across the county line. As a result, he would make the trip once a month, and buy a truck full of beer, and bring it across the line when he knew there was nobody patrolling (which was most of the time).

The result of the regulation was that he always had a truck full of beer. Whenever he wanted a beer, all he had to do was go out to the coolers and get one. He wound up going out to that cooler an awful lot. I always thought that he would not have wound up drinking quite so much if it had not been for the "Dry" county.

I suspect the same thing is going to happen in NYC. Smokers are going to start making buying trips and coming back with case lots. As a result, every smoker is going to have a huge supply of cigarettes on hand, and smoking will increase.

[SheLion]

Smoke and Mirrors: Cigarette Taxes Vanish on the Web

"It's enough to take a smoker's breath away. After a July 1 tax hike, a single pack of cigarettes costs $8 in New York City, more than twice the national average of $3.75."

"After just one week with the new tax hikes, online retailers reported rising interest. "We're seeing a big increase," says Dan Colpetzer, manager of Seneca Smokes, an online tobacco retailer based in Lewiston, N.Y. "We're getting calls from all over the country, but especially New York City."

[KS Flyover]

[laredo44]

Seems to me the AP needs to do some fact checking.

29.2 million packs @ $.08 per pack = $2,336,000.
15.6 million packs @ $1.50 per pack = $23,400,000.

The difference is $21 mil., not $12.3.

[hattend]

There are no studies yet to determine whether New Yorkers are quitting smoking or simply taking other avenues to fix their nicotine cravings, such as online mail order buys or trips out of town.

Jeez, AP, do a poll like you always do. You know what the answer is, why don't you want to report it?

[Brookhaven]

This article has a major error in it.

New Yorkers purchased 15.6 million cigarette packs last month,

No, TAX STAMPS for 15.6 million packs were purchased last month.

They way the system works (at least in GA, I'm assuming it is similar in NY) is this. A wholesaler purchases the stamps and applys them to the packs that are sitting in their warehouse. They are then distributed to stores who have to stock them and then sell them to customers. There can be as much as a 30 day lag time between the time the stamps are ordered and someone acutally buys the pack to smoke.

This first order of stamps by wholesalers was just an estimated guess of how many they would need. It will take several months to determine how this has really affected sales.

[Brookhaven]

millions more tax dollars poured into city coffers - $12.3 million, compared to $2.3 million during the same period last year.

This fails to take into account the lost tax revenue in other areas.

Gasoline, beer, and cigarettes are the "drivers" of convience stores (they are the reason people visit those stores in the first place.) Since they are there anyway, they go ahead and purchase additonal items (bread, soft drinks, milk, aspirin, magazines, newspapers, etc...)

How many of these additonal sales are being lost by the store because fewer people are stopping to buy cigarettes? Who knows, but the taxes associated with the sale of those items (sales tax, business income tax) are lost and certainly offset the increased tax revenue from the cigarettes.

[Freedom4US]

I listened to a short program on the BBC last night, lamenting that US states were allocating tobacco "settlement" money (that left over after the lawyers get done vacuuming) towards expenditures other than tobacco cessation programs.

It was pretty funny in a perverse sort of way. They seemed to think this was unprecedented or somesuch. Many states are using the money towards budget deficits and tax cuts. The smoking nazis (that's what the are) have opened a can of worms here for sure. I expect to see tobacco largely criminalized in my lifetime and the modus operendi utilized for anything and everything deemed 'bad' by the intelligentsia. Way to go, guys.

[Bob J]

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