RHODE ISLAND SMOKERS' CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STATE ECONOMY 2001

2 September 2002

[SheLion]

RHODE ISLAND SMOKERS' CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE STATE ECONOMY 2001  

Rhode Island smokers comprise only 23.5% of the adult population in the state. Here is what they already pay because they choose to buy a legal product:

• Smokers Pay Excise Taxes $ 67,580,560
• Smokers Pay Sales Taxes $ 21,455,280
• Smokers Pay Tobacco Settlement Payments $ 44,500,000

                                                                                              $133,535,840

Smokers’ Economic/Tax Profile

• Income
  • Rhode Island smokers’ median income 2000 $28,154
• Median Income Smoker Rhode Island State Tax Liability
  • Annual state income tax liability for a couple $589
  • Annual state income tax liability for a couple with two children $364

• Smoker Excise Tax/Sales Tax/Tobacco Settlement Payments Liability
  • Total average paid per Rhode Island smoker in excise and sales taxes $473
  • Price per Rhode Island smoker for settlement payments to Rhode Island $236

Total annual payment to Rhode Island per smoker $709

Rhode Island Smoker Facts

• Rhode Island smoker payments in 2001 were more than fourteen times as large as state excise taxes of $9.2 million on alcoholic beverages.
• Rhode Island smoker payments in 2001 were more than 58% larger than total corporate net income tax revenues paid by Rhode Island corporations ($84.3 million).
• In 2001, Rhode Island smoker payments were greater than Rhode Island motor fuels taxes of $118.9 million.
• Rhode Island smoker payments could have paid for FY2001 spending for:

• The Department of Health ($84 million)
• Disease Prevention and Control ($5 million)
• The State Police ($37.7 million)
• Environmental Management ($52.7 million)
• Veterans ($12.4 million)

• In 1997, smokers supported 1,484 jobs that paid an additional $1,824,905 in state and local personal income and corporate taxes.

CIGARETTES DON’T PAY TAXES – RHODE ISLAND SMOKERS DO!!

Rhode Island Data Sources

Total Packs sold = 799,464,000 (Orzechowski & Walker Tax Burden On Tobacco 2001 from Rhode Island Department of Revenue)

Excise Taxes Paid = Orzechowski & Walker Tax Burden On Tobacco 2001 from Rhode Island Department of Revenue packs sold

Sales Taxes Paid= packs sold multiplied by sales tax rate (7% or $.27 per pack)

Settlement payment amount (Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids)

Number of smokers (188,215)= Census Bureau 2000 Rhode Island 18+ population (1,046,319) multiplied by CDC’s 2000 percent of adults who are smokers (23.5)

Total paid per smoker excise & sales taxes = total excise and sales taxes paid (89,035,840) divided by number of smokers (188,215)

Total paid per smoker for settlement payments = settlement payments amount divided by number of smokers

Smokers’ median income per CDC’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System 2000, public use data

State annual income tax liability from PayBreeze software of General Programming, Inc., San Jose, California, which utilizes the Exact Calculation Method

Smoker facts from Rhode Island State Budget Office, FY 2002 Budget as Enacted, p. 17-18, Online at

http://www.budget.state.ri.us/

Jobs created and personal/corporate income tax paid from Economic Impact of Tobacco 1997

[Nuke'm Glowing]

" Based on the numbers you posted, I expect the sky's the limit. The pathetic addicts have no self control. ."

Remember your statement when they overtax what you enjoy eating, driving or drinking....

[Nuke'm Glowing]

"The first trait of an addict is denial."

The first trait of a socialist is to believe they are superior to others so they must impose their morality and ideals on society.

[Nuke'm Glowing]

"No it never did. How anyone can find pleasure in filling their lungs with smoke while stinking up everything they own is not something that occurred to me. Maybe I just don't understand your definition of pleasure."

Actually I enjoy a good cigar. I also enjoy calling a communist a communist when I see one. So just how many Yugos do you own?

[Nuke'm Glowing]

" Smoke bans existed back when our country was founded. Somehow the founders didn't think it was a right that needed to be protected, thank God."

They never assumed it would be a problem. Open up a history book. Many of the founding fathers were tobacco farmers. They never thought that our country would take a hard turn to the left because communism was not a concept back then that anyone could grasp. They didn't believe that people like yourself would ever exist in this great nation.

[Max McGarrity]

Maybe I just don't understand your definition of pleasure.

Minnie, there's a lot you don't understand.

[Max McGarrity]

Smoke bans existed back when our country was founded. Somehow the founders didn't think it was a right that needed to be protected, thank God.

Hmmmm, been reading that revisionist history again I see. The Founders didn't believe private property rights and individual liberties would ever be thrown away by the wimps and nannies. Your timing is off a couple hundred years in either direction.

[SheLion]

Aren't any of you at all embarrassed truly to be part of this grade school pettiness, childishness and cackling behind someone's back like this?....This is worse than a 4th grade chat room.

Excuse me, but this is for a smoker thread, to which we have MANY of. It's for informational purposes for the Puff_List!  VRWC_minion came in to continually bash us.  We will NOT put up with it.

I'm sorry you think this is like a 4th grade chat room, however, there is a lot of research that we have all done about the anti-smokers and the second hand smoke fraud that NO 4th grader could ever understand!

We ARE Conservations and Yes! We DO smoke!

If you would like to participate in our threads, your welcome to come in and get educated.

If your NOT interested, there are plenty of other threads for you to go to.

You must not have truly read our answers to VRWC minion, or you would have understood that we are not a group to take bashing lightly! If you would have read our posts, then you would see that we know what we are talking about.

PS : F16Fighter........my hubby is a Viet Nam Vet......Army ground pounder!  He smokes and finds the anti-smokers totally disgusting.  He fought for the rights of the American people, and now the Anti's are trying to take our rights away.  Pissed? You bet he is!

Oh wait! You said we were going "behind VRWC_minions BACK??!!" Well, YOU read our posts, so he can too!  heh!  What are YOU?  His  BROTHER???

[SheLion]

"Minnie"

[SheLion]

With that quote comes the ignorance of what an individualist is. If you are so worried about the "state treasury" feeding the "hungry children" get up off your lazy a$$ and go feed them. How many church functions do you belong to? How many homeless or poor families do you feed? Until you say at least 1, on a daily basis, shut up. Your feeble attempt at an argument in that statement above just professess DUignorance, a disease we don't need on this board.

[SheLion]

This was posted by our friend VRWC_minion on another thread:-

My wife is still working on me. So far I have given up drinking, smoking, fatty foods, caffeine and wiskers in sink. Still on her list is staring at girls, socks on the floor, helping around the house and probably more than I know as of yet. In 100 years I'll be perfect.

Wow!! No wonder he's such a miserable SOB! And after all that nagging, he still carries on like a pork chop on smoking threads.

Strike another one off the list - he used to make me angry, but after reading this, I have nothing but pity for him. Poor "man".

[Nuke'm Glowing]

Sorry, but this issue "fires" me up. I'm sick of others dictating to me how I live my life or run my business.

[SheLion]

Sorry, but this issue "fires" me up. I'm sick of others dictating to me how I live my life or run my business

I sure know what you mean.  What irks the Puff_List is how people can call themselves "Conservatives" then bash the rights of the smoker or think the Government should ban smoking in a private business.  The Government has NO right dictating to a business owner if he should be smoking or non-smoking!  Let that decision be left up to the OWNER!

I keep a list of the CINO's in Free Republic.  It's growing every day.  Pity!  As long as THEIR rights are intact, to hell with the rest of us.

[Nuke'm Glowing]

As far as I'm concerned, when you intrude on my rights, for no reason, in another state far away, you lose your rights. These anti-smoking pro-tofu tree-hugging commies have no right from Commieronia or the PRD (People's Republic of Delaware) to come down here and try to "protect" the non-smokers from smokers. If they wanted that protection, they can get up off their lazy butts and do something. Well, I'm going to make news when this election comes around. I'm renting a Nazi uniform, getting the Hitler make-up on and going to stand on a street corner holding a sign up supporting the anti-smoking amendment on the ballot down here. I might as well get the message across to the sheeple as to what they are voting for and the type of people that support it.

[SheLion]

Did you say DELAWARE???!!!!!!!

[SheLion]

I'm renting a Nazi uniform, getting the Hitler make-up on and going to stand on a street corner holding a sign up supporting the anti-smoking amendment on the ballot down here.

Like this?

[lewislynn]

So if you have a B.O. problem, I have the right to sue you to have you restricted to say going out in public only between 10 p.m. to midnight daily? Because that's what you are saying I have the right to do. That pretty much keeps you in the 24 hour groceries, 7-11's and late movies. Better think about what you wish for.

HUH?...OH, that explains it, you're a shining example of a Florida voter...I didn't recognize the total lack of comprehension at first.

BTW, you aren't fooling anyone. You have that Hitler uniform hanging in your closet.

[SheLion]

BTW, you aren't fooling anyone. You have that Hitler uniform hanging in your closet.

Oh get a life! Who pulled YOU out of your box!!!

[SheLion]

BTW, you aren't fooling anyone. You have that Hitler uniform hanging in your closet.

And YOU wear brown shirts and jackboots! Marching in step with Clinton still, eh??

[Rate_Determining_Step]

Hey, got an idea.

What if we (meaning us smokers) decided on a targeted boycott. Don't mean to freak you out, but DE with it's relatively small size, socialistic tendencies would be a great target.

Make 'em squeal with the lack of taxes from a boycott on smoking. Have "out-of-state" smoking parties, buy smokes out of state, whatever. Come up with every single way of depriving DE of smoke taxes. I don't think it would take long before they went apopletic.

What do you think?

- RDS
    Parial list of likes: Camel Lights 100s, thick NY steaks, fast cars, Ayn Rand and Phil Gramm (not necessarily in that order!)

[SheLion]

That's a GREAT idea! You have to keep an eye out for Gabz. She lives in Delaware and is having FIT about the upcoming Bans!!! Talk to Gabz. She is always looking for ways to put a wringer in the lawmakers plans.

btw, I am in northern Maine, but Gabz is a good friend of mine.