[TomGuy]

Cigarette sales in New York plummeted almost 50 percent in July

tax the $hit out of a product finally people will stop buying a legal product.

Cigarette [blackmarket and internet] sales in New York plummeted [increased] almost 50 percent in July.

Visualizing....coming attraction:
Dark alleyway
Late at night
Clandestined meeting
Strangers voices
Hey, Mac...
Sorry, no Mac...Burger King, though
How much?
$7.50
With fries?
Yeh, ok, but the catsup's extra.
Let me have 2 orders. $15 bucks! Well, that's still half what they are now with the new fast-food-anti-fat-for-your-health-city-needs-revenue tax.

[goldstategop]

NYC will never be able to tax its way to fiscal sanity. I should correct my previous post to note that NY's city government hasn't gotten around to cutting the taxes yet. It'll take quite a while for the self inflicted wound to sink in as cigarette smokers shop elsewhere. Let's pray the liberals never do figure out they would actually get more if they decided the beleagured John Citizen taxpayer could pony up less.