[YOMO]

Cigarette sales here plummeted by half - but despite the decline in sales, tax revenues skyrocketed beyond projections....... "People are buying half as many cigarettes, but we're making five times as much money," boasted Jordan Barowitz, a spokesman for Mayor Bloomberg.............

Typical politians, brag about sticking it to the taxpayers.

Officials concede that smokers can easily evade the tax by shopping outside the five boroughs, especially at tax-free Indian reservations, and on the Internet.............


Standard thinking, tax it high, find the loopholes, choke the crap out of them slowly as the sheep get used to it.

"People throw the carton. They say, ‘What is this?' How can we explain?" ................

Population control and give me your money. The only difference between Jessie James and his gang and NYC is that J.J. and his boys used a gun and mask.

He also predicted a wave of smuggling............

Pass a law that encourages the masses to violate it. Yeah, that's the ticket.

[StockAyatollah]

Where are all the usual socialists who should be complaining that this is a heavily regressive tax?