[SheLion]

Gov. John E. Baldacci said Tuesday he will support the cigarette tax increase as the best available solution to eliminating the $250 million state revenue bond included in the two-year,

But I thought Partnership for a Tobacco Free Maine wanted a smoke free state?  If that were so, where would Baldacci and his ilk go to fill their coffers if there were no more smokers??

Can anyone answer me that?

What about the billions of tax dollars being fed into Maine by smokers via the Tobacco Settlement money?  How much blood money does this administration want to bled out of one group of people that live in this state??

Click here to find out just how much Maine smokers already contribute to the state.  What is fair is fair and this is totally unjust!

The Maine lawmakers talk out of both sides of their mouths and I for one am sick and tired of it!

 

[SheLion]

Well, they did it again! Screwed 25-30% of the Maine people who choose to smoke a legal product!!!

Well, here is one alternative:

Can't stand the high taxes?

Afraid to order off of the Internet?

Then start rolling your own!!!

I roll out a beautiful carton for a little under $8 dollars.  Premiums in my state are now up to $45-$50 a carton.  Can you imagine the money I have saved over the past 4 years since I now roll my own?  It's mind boggling.

under $50.00

$5.75 a bag

$1.99 for 200 filtered tubes

 
and

Smokers United

Roll Your Own Tobacco Store

Roll Your Own Magazine

[Tarpon]

Why not $40 a pack tax? They could fund the whole budget with this level of taxation on cigs. Give all the rest of the money back to the people.

I suggest we get those Navy bases out of this communist country.

[StoneColdTaxHater]

I don't live in Maine I live in "tobacco friendly" North Carolina but I agree whole heartedly. If tobacco were soooo deadly why isn't it banned? Answer...Tax revenue. The feds banned ephedra last year after 100 people died over 10 years by that standard we would be banning cars too. The hypocrisy is sickening.

[Condor51]

"We have selected some new revenue to bring us to the $250 million target," said Sen. Peggy Rotundo, D-Lewiston.

Earth to Peggy - NO you haven't.

1. People will buy on-line from a certain Indian Reservation that will not release it's records.
   
2. Other's will just stop smoking.

   And I hope you're sitting down for this one Peggy.....

3. The state will see a DECREASE in tax revenue from cigarette sales.

Have a nice day you ijit dem.

[2banana]

The black market and organized crime thanks the Maine legislatures...

[NaughtiusMaximus]

The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other peoples' money to spend.

[yoe]

The increase would effectively drive up the over-the-counter price for a pack of premium cigarettes like Marlboro from $4.19 to $5.19.

Just try this with beer………

"In order to cut more we were going to have to get into those programs that provide health insurance for some of the poorest people in the state - the working poor,"

Slipping Socialized Medicine under the door? Don't be fooled by the hackneyed "working poor".....

[The Great RJ]

Maine legislators need a course in basic economics. If the price of a good increases the market responds by buying less of that good or seeking cheaper substitutes.

Maine smokers might actually quit smoking or at least cut down the number of cigarettes they smoke or more likely will buy their cigarettes from cheaper sources such as from the Internet, in Indian reservation smoke shops or from bootleggers. This increase in tax will likely decrease the revenue raised and create a need for expensive tax enforcement.

The old story of the goose that laid the golden egg is very applicable here.

[CSM]

http://www.maine.gov/portal/facts_history/facts.html
Facts About Maine
Fast Facts
Population of Maine in 2000: 1,274,923

With a $5,700,000,000 budget, that comes to about $4,470.86 per resident. They would be better off just sending checks to every resident for $4,000.

But wait, then they wouldn't be able to employ all the useless folks in good government jobs.

[Gone GF]

Deferring salary increases for state employees puts the burden on an even smaller number of people. Please explain why those folks should absorb what amounts to a tax increase for them?

[aquila48]

...$5.7 billion state budget to take effect July 1. Like the 8-5 vote on the budget panel Tuesday, the state budget was advanced in March by majority Democrats who believed the $250 million loan was an acceptable alternative to deep spending cuts in state programs.

Let's see, 250mil divided by 5.7 bils is less than 5% - how does that qualify as "deep spending cuts"? And I bet anything the budget actually increased, so probably the so-called cuts would be a cut on the increase not actual cuts.

[newsgatherer]

Hey, that's two bucks a pack now plus sales tax and mark up, Wish I ahd the guts to tell the boss I want to give up working for him free and go be a smuggler.

20 bucks a cartoon in tax, and here we are 30 miles or less from conway.

How many cartoons can you get in the back of a 3/4 ton pick up?

Now, I know it sounds as if I'm making light of this, but, I've got to tell you, I one time interviewed a man who was in jail for smuggling, he told me that the only things he smuggled were things folks wanted that were legal to use, like cigarettes, he made millions before he got sloppy and caught.

He got caught smuggling booze out of canada and into New York. Got two years if memory serves me. Actually it was kind of funny how he got caught. He was dragging a sled full of cases of booze across the St. Johns river with a snowmobile loaded with cases of booze when he went through the ice.

He’s out now, wonder if I can find him might be fun to put up some of his tricks of the trade, then of course, Bob would fire me. No, he can’t do that, I’m free labor.

Jake

[Aquinasfan]

We can expect an upturn in cigarette-related violence.

[Madame Dufarge]

As if Baldacci's "let them eat cake" attitude toward smokers isn't infuriating enough, I just suffered through an ad on WVOM from some tobacco Nazi group whimpering about how everyone should call the governor's office and demand that he not defund their sinecure, "for Maine's future."

Who needs Ipecac when these people are around?

[Hot Tabasco]

HaHaHaHa........Ya gotta love these money hungry politicians and thank God they currently have a whipping boy. Once the state smokers go internet then eventually blackmarket, the politicians have nowhere else to recover the loss of tobacco revenues and rather than cut state spending, they will ultimately turn on the same people who gleefully spit on the tobacco industry...........

What goes around comes around.......ROFLMAO!

Let that be a lesson to you nico-nazis reading this thread......

[Baraonda]

That's nice indeed.

When everything else fails, suck it to the smokers.

[Poser]

Bonus!!! New Hampshire will reap the benefits again. Thanks, Mainers!