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

[VRWC_minion]

I must be SUCH a disappointment, huh?

You are never a disapointment.

[rstevens]

Easiest thing to do in the world, is to quit smoking...hell I've done it hundreds of times.

[VRWC_minion]

I'll match you, fact for fact.

Which fact ? that tobacco smoke is the vilest smell on earth or that smokers who complain about the taxes end up paying whatever they have to because they cannot control themselves ?

[VRWC_minion]

YOU can take a long walk off a short pier TOO!

If I do, I won't have to worry about losing my investment in a recently lit cigarette.

[VRWC_minion]

I'm sure thankful you don't live in MY neighborhood!

Not half as thankful as me. I would hate to have to complain about your smoke.

[Bella_Bru]

You just cannot possibly believe that some of us actually enjoy smoking, right? Proves how stupid you really are. I assume that because you are oh-so health conscious, you only eat low fat meals and workout everyday. If not, I am sure mytax dollars will someday go to saving your ass.

[Leisler]

So you wouldn't have joined in on the Boston Tea party?

Environmentalists say that Americans are hooked on their cars and should be taxed out of them. You support it in principal, I suppose, as auto (and other) emmisions do cause pollution.

I see no reason why private gun ownership shouldn't be heavily taxed. Anyone that complains about forfeiting their firearms to the state because of the high tax must have a pathetic psychological attachment bordering on mental illness. You would support this?

Once the principal is established that government can do to one party, one thing, it is but a another step to find the next party to do something to. And the governmenalistas will, as they are always busy.

[VRWC_minion]

I am sure you will come in to our thread and spew your inaccurate, deceitful and dishonest lies!

Please tell what lies ? BTW, is redundancy a consequence of chain smoking ?

[Bella_Bru]

You sure are one purdy gurl! :-P

I am with you. I opted out of the tax program too. In various ways. Roll my own, and internet. California "for the children" smoker's tax....not from me.

[VRWC_minion]

Did it ever occur to you that we LIKE IT???????????

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.

[VRWC_minion]

You just cannot possibly believe that some of us actually enjoy smoking, right?

No. But maybe its because I'm not a masochist.

[rstevens]

I'll bet you are a 400 lb lard ass, who get all of your nutrition from the likes of McDonalds, Wendy's etc.

But just wait, you are the next tax victum. They are already putting the pieces together for a "Twinkies" tax. Then it will be your automobile with a miles driven tax. There will be no end to it.

Perhaps you will learn then that your complicity and approval and pushing for a cigarette tax, opened up this pandora's box in the first place.

[VRWC_minion]

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.

[Great Dane]

I love smokers. They're so easy to get money from on account of their addiction.

You might want to rethink that statement, I don't think anyone here pays with their blood, we have found ways to have our cake and eat it too. :-}

[Leisler]

"Smoke bans existed back when our country was founded… Yes and no. It wasn’t nationwide. Elizabethan Puritans were gone over a hundred years before the revolution, and even at their height didn’t have influence beyond 50 or so miles from Boston. Tobacco, even as far north as Massachusetts and New York were very prized crops and provided a important source of trade and revenue. Certainly that was the case in the mid Atlantic and southers states.

… Somehow the founders didn't think it was a right that needed to be protected, thank God." Wrong. Tobacco was a export crop and its money, even then, was very much needed. So in as much as they thought about it, it would have been positive. Tobacco leaves decorate many state seals, and capitals. I doubt they gave any political/philosophic thought to tobacco smoking as a right, not that it is, or should be, and enumerated right.

All this aside, you didn’t answer any of the real instances I listed of today’s government and its agents increasing the states power over the individual under the guise, real or imagined, of public heath, safety, and the environment. But I doubted that you would, or could.

[SheLion]

Easiest thing to do in the world, is to quit smoking...hell I've done it hundreds of times.

I quit smoking for 5 days. It was the most MISERABLE 5 days of my life. I said 'Never again.'

I Love to smoke and it enhances the quality of my life. heh! I love to smoke before and after EVERYTHING I do!!LOL

I can't even imagine my life with coffee and cigarettes. May as well shoot me..........

[SheLion]

Which fact ? that tobacco smoke is the vilest smell on earth or that smokers who complain about the taxes end up paying whatever they have to because they cannot control themselves ?

Listen " ---- weed"........smokers LOVE the smell of burning tobacco. A lot of times, when I light up, Bubba says "Oh wow, that smells good!" And grabs one for himself.

Complain about taxes? WHAT taxes? We buy off of the Net, the Reservations or roll our own. So NO taxes, "my pain in the ass."

Control? Oh dear! I can control not butchering YOU with a virtual SLEDGE HAMMER!

And control? I control myself to not to drink and DRIVE!

I control myself by not throwing the neighbors dog do-do back into their yard. Oh yes, "I" have control, "my pain in the ass!"

But apparently, YOU have no control to come into a smokers thread and show your ass to everyone.

[KS Flyover]

Hi SheLion Did you see the latest in cancer causing health hazards?

Second Hand Diesel Fuel

What will the panty waists that hate second-hand smoke do now?

Idiots like VRWC_minion and looneylynn won't ever be able to leave their protective bubbles. :`)

[SheLion]

If I do, I won't have to worry about losing my investment in a recently lit cigarette.

You just don't get it, do you.  I have told you COUNTLESS times that we ROLL OUR OWN! Read this very carefully now:

A bag of tobacco that makes one carton of cigarettes cost $5.75.

One box of filtered tubes costs $1.99.

We ordered the Supermatic cigarette machine from the net which makes up a beautiful carton of cigarettes.

After buying the Supermatic machine, we can get a carton for UNDER $8.00!!

A carton of cigarettes in this state can cost anywhere from $44 dollars up to $50!

The savings are WONDERFUL!  So OUR investments are just fine, thank you.

[SheLion]

How anyone can find pleasure in filling their lungs with smoke while stinking up everything they own is not something that occurred to me.

Oh my God! Listen.  We have Air Purifiers in every room plus ceiling fans!

I bath daily and wash my hair daily.  I never wear the same clothing twice.

Damn! Why am I justifying myself to you!!!!!!!!!!!