California: Smoking Mad About Prop 86

Tehachapi News ^ | November 6, 2006 | George Lewis

[SheLion]

I stopped to drop off a carton of cigarettes for a disabled veteran at a nursing home. They have a bleak area outside where they can enjoy a cigarette at fixed intervals. He was reading an absentee ballot about Proposition 86.

He said, “This is crazy! We can’t afford $70 for a carton of cigarettes. That’s the most prejudiced, hateful proposition I ever read.”

Then he asked me, “Can this pass?”

I said, “Are you old enough to remember bus segregation, because some people didn’t think some people looked as nice as they did?”

He said, “Haven’t we learned anything from history? Who’s promoting this crime, this time?”

I said, “They are people with a drug addiction. The drug of venomous, vindictive, cold-hearted hate. A drug ten times worse than heroin. It forms a hard callous around the heart, like a stone, and destroys logical, reasoning ability, so they can’t quit.”

He lifted his head from his hand, and looking up, through eyes like a saint’s, he said, “Then I feel sorry for them. Their burden is greater than mine.”

Not wanting to contaminate the virtue of his words, I said, “Yes, I guess we should feel sorry for them.”

What I really thought was, the trail of their whole life is littered with their victims. If they could eliminate every smoker on earth, they would just channel another fanatical, inflictive vendetta. It’s their drug of choice. They can’t quit.  

[Joe Boucher]

I like user fees much more then additional taxes cause they make the folks that use the service pay instead of one who doesn't.
Such as parks, bridges, roads, pools etc.

[szweig]

And what they don't tell you about 86...it applies to all tobacco products - not just ciggies. The price of cigars and pipe tobacco will almost DOUBLE, throwing most cigar/tobacco stores out of business. So all you folks who enjoy the camaraderie of a good smoke with friends at the "local"...better do what's right here!

[wolfcreek]

$70 a carton????? This means Arnold will be the only one who can afford to smoke! Texas cig taxes are going up a dollar a pack on Jan. 1

[gondramB]

>>WHAT industry???? The mom and pop's struggling to make ends meet and keeping their little businesses open? I doubt very much if this is going to help any of them!<<

He runs a media company.

Looking up Cali's GDP on Wikipedia was amazing.

This surprised me
>>California's overall tax burden of $10.66 per $100 of personal income is slightly above the $10.43 average for the United States.[16]<<

And this really surprsised me... I knew there were wealthy parts of California but look at some of these towns average income

1076 Tobin, California – Plumas County – $2,584
1075 Belden, California – Plumas County – $3,141
1074 East Orosi, California – Tulare County – $4,984
1073 London, California – Tulare County – $5,632
1072 Cantua Creek, California – Fresno County – $5,693
1071 Indian Falls, California – Plumas County – $5,936
1070 Westley, California – Stanislaus County – $6,137
1069 Cutler, California – Tulare County – $6,254
1068 Mecca, California – Riverside County – $6,389
1067 Richgrove, California – Tulare County – $6,415

I bet $70 for a carton of cigarettes is really gonna hurt if you make $5000 a year.

[libertarian27]

I have been buying cigarettes and liquor in NH for Years....
According to MA - I'm a tea-tottling non-smoker.
Many people I know don't even blip on the screen as smokers...or drinkers.
MA smoking rate went down? Yeah- right....

[SheLion]

So all you folks who enjoy the camaraderie of a good smoke with friends at the "local"...better do what's right here!

Smoking isn't for everyone, we all agree.  But it is still a legal product and by voting for such a bill will affect everyone.  Not just smokers.  It will have the trickle down affect.  We don't want that!

Nancy sure wants it, but we don't even want NANCY!!

[SheLion]

I bet $70 for a carton of cigarettes is really gonna hurt if you make $5000 a year.

Well, California is rich.  And it takes a lot of money to live there.  But wages are high.  However, there are still Senior's on a fixed income and lots of our Veterans live out there, and they don't make a lot of money either.  If this passes, it will really hurt these two groups of people.

[Thermalseeker]

The crazies that are calif will kill one of their golden gooses if this passes.

Yeah, this isn't about preventing the masses from getting something that is bad for their health. This is all about money. If cigarettes are so bad, ban them!

Taxing the socks off of addicts is sickening.....Politico's will do anything, absolutely anything for a tax buck. Disgusting.

[Atlas Sneezed]

The smokers on a fixed income might consider moving. Why stay when there is no job to keep them there?

[tacticalogic]

Does anyone who doesn't smoke actually believe that the politicians will simply do without the tax revenues they've gotten used to getting from cigarettes when they finally force everyone to quit smoking?

[SheLion]

The smokers on a fixed income might consider moving. Why stay when there is no job to keep them there?

I'm talking about Seniors that have retired and are living off of Social Security.

The smokers on a fixed income might consider moving. Why stay when there is no job to keep them there?

I'm talking about Seniors that have retired and are living off of Social Security.

[SheLion]

Does anyone who doesn't smoke actually believe that the politicians will simply do without the tax revenues they've gotten used to getting from cigarettes when they finally force everyone to quit smoking?

Oh heck no!  They love their little pet programs that the smokers tax dollars are providing for them.  If that tobacco tax money dries up, they will go after something else.  We can all count on it.,

Does anyone who doesn't smoke actually believe that the politicians will simply do without the tax revenues they've gotten used to getting from cigarettes when they finally force everyone to quit smoking?

Oh heck no!  They love their little pet programs that the smokers tax dollars are providing for them.  If that tobacco tax money dries up, they will go after something else.  We can all count on it.,

[Atlas Sneezed]

The smokers on a fixed income might consider moving. Why stay when there is no job to keep them there?

I'm talking about Seniors that have retired and are living off of Social Security.

---

Which will go much farther in another state.

[Just another Joe]

Unanticipated consequences ahead bump.

[jpsb]

We are going to get hit with a 1.00 pack tax here in Texas after the first. I will not pay it I will quit first.

[SheLion]

We are going to get hit with a 1.00 pack tax here in Texas after the first. I will not pay it I will quit first.

Well, I started rolling my own 4 years ago.  Especially after Maine slapped a $20 dollar a carton tax on cigarettes!  I can roll a beautiful carton for a little under $8 dollars! I really love it!

Can't stand the high taxes?

Afraid to order off of the Internet?

Then start rolling your own!!! I find everything but the machine downtown at the local Smoke Shop.  Also, Rite Aid and grocery stores also sell the bags of tobacco and the filtered tubes.

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

Check StuffYourOwn for prices on tobacco

$1.99 for 200 filtered tubes

Make your own cigarettes for as low as $6.99 per Carton! Smoke Quality FILTERED cigarettes that you make yourself using cigarette tubes (like a cigarette without the Cigarette tobacco), our cigarette making machines, and our "roll your own" cigarette tobacco.


-Stop Paying High Cigarette Taxes
-So Much Easier than "Roll Your Own" cigarettes!

and

Smokers United

Roll Your Own Tobacco Store

Roll Your Own Magazine

[gidget7]

hahahaha Me too libertarian. Cha's is the place. about 2 years ago, they station MA state troopers on the border to catch MA residents as they crossed it, calling it boot legging. NH sued and won.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[dogbyte12]

Depends. What are the health care costs of smokers. I am not an anti smoking ninny at all. But smokers do miss more days of work with colds because it hits them harder. Smokers do get debilitating diseases that the state picks up. For a personal choice. Which is fine. Smoke em if you got em. But, let's not pretend that other tax payers and businesses aren't paying alot of money for that choice.

Forget the long sick absentee problem. My mother in law smokes 3 packs a day, minimum. How productive can you be if you need to have a smoke break every 20 minutes? If I "needed" a quarter pounder with cheese every 20 minutes to make it through the day, my work output would stink.

[Joe Boucher]

That isn't my point. High taxation is and once the tax base from ciggy taxes disappears as a result of costing too much, they will come at you from a different angle for those taxes.
Yes it bothered me that when I had my business smokers tried to take 10 minutes off every hour for a ciggy break while the rest who didn't were supposed to continue working.
But then again folks with kids take more time for whatever reason whether it be childs sickness or soccer games or whatever.
Also when in the military they used to give ya 5 every hour or so to."smoke em if ya got em". that encouraged many to smoke just for the added break time.