And they still don't understand that people will buy things elsewhere when the govt taxes them excessively. That's the bad news.
The good news, for me at least, is that I stuff my own premium cigarettes for less than $2 a pack.
And unfortunately it looks like they never will.
When Pataki the traitor raised the State cigarette taxes in April 2002 they expected to raise an additional $400 million dollars (To go for child welfare programs of course, Isn't it nice having an anti government Republican Governor) but instead they ended up with $150 million less than before the tax was implemented. And that's not counting the excess of 1 Billion dollars of lost income (Not just in cigarette sales but others like Milk, Bread & Gasoline) that the New York Association of Convenience Stores claims they lose each year because of the tax.
(My numbers BTW are coming from an old article Sinners not alone as ‘sin tax’ victims
And I hate to tell them it isn't because people are quitting.
And more bad news today for the antis. One of the main justifications for these high taxes is to prevent teens from smoking, You know the ole "It's for the children" rap.
Right from The American Journal of Public Health, Hardly what you will call a Pro-Tobacco Journal
http://www.ajph.org/cgi/content/abstract/93/3/412
Is Smoking Delayed Smoking Averted?
Sherry Glied, PhD March 2003, Vol 93, No. 3
The author is with the Department of Health Policy and Management, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY.
Antismoking efforts often target teenagers in the hope of producing a new generation of never smokers. Teenagers are more responsive to tobacco taxes than are adults.
The author summarizes recent evidence suggesting that delaying smoking initiation among teenagers through higher taxes does not generate proportionate reductions in prevalence rates through adulthood. In consequence, the impact of taxes on smoking among youths overstates the potential long-term public health effects of this tobacco control strategy.
Somehow I don't think we will hear about this in the mainstream press
So raising cigarette taxes to unreasonable levels.....
1)Doesn't result in an increase in revenue, It fact it often results in a huge loss
2)Doesn't result getting any significant numbers of smokers to quit but instead to seek alternatives to avoid the tax,
3) Which results in a ripple effect causing many other buisnesses to lose money and in many cases go out of buisness thus even less taxes collected by the state.
4)Doesn't prevent Teens from taking up smoking.
If the results of higher cigarette taxes doesn't achevie any of it's intended goals then what's the ^*(@^ point!!!
You would think the politicians would have a 1/10th of a brain and realize it's time to cut their loses with these crazy high taxes and return cigarette taxes to a reasonable level.