Smoke and Mirrors: Cigarette Taxes Vanish on the Web

Yahoo News ^ | July 12, 2002 | Eric Gillin

[SheLion]

Buy from the Reservations or Roll Your Own!

[SheLion]

Happy Sunday, Everyone!!!

[rb22982]

I dont smoke cigarettes, but I see packs for ~3/pack for name brands here in Greensboro, NC regularly.

[jellybean]

Tobacco products are not living room furniture. They're an impulse buy," says Larry Downs, executive director of New Jersey Breathes, an antitobacco coalition. "People who buy packs aren't going to switch to cartons. It's not like you're buying milk or bread. People know they're bad."

Wonder what this guy does with that oxygen that he breathes...it's surely not going to his brain.

[Publius6961]

"Tobacco products are not living room furniture. They're an impulse buy," says Larry Downs, executive director of New Jersey Breathes, an antitobacco coalition. "People who buy packs aren't going to switch to cartons. It's not like you're buying milk or bread. People know they're bad."

Oh great... a talking gekko.

This loser has his head up his butt so far, speaking for smokers, that he has no clue that he sounds like a total clown.
Figures.

[Publius6961]

Using a 54-year-old law called the Jenkins Act, states are forcing retailers who sell cigarettes across state lines to report customer identities, addresses and amounts purchased on a monthly basis.

I thought taxing commerce between the states was prohibited by the constitution.
Shouldn't this require a Constitutional amendment?

[lewislynn]

Everyone wrings their hands focusing on what's happening in California from smoking to SUV's while your/their neighborhoods/communities/states crumble around you/them....

[southernnorthcarolina]

As I non-smoker, I have a concern about high cigarette taxes. Liberals, while generally in support of high cig taxes, will also decry the cig taxes as being regressive (what? liberals trying to have it both ways? what a surprise!), impacting the poor more than the rich. Same with the state lottery, fundamentally a tax on the stupid. Liberals will use these forms of regressive taxation to argue in favor of retained or increased "progressive" taxation, such as capital gains, death taxes, and property taxes, so as to "balance" the situation. Any method possible to gouge the successful to the benefit of the non-producers, and of the bureaucracy.

So while I have precious little sympathy for those who like to suck smoke from burning leaves into their lungs (gee, wouldn't that seem intuitively to be a bad idea?), I worry that excess taxes on the habit may give cover to those who wish to "soak the rich," until there are none left to soak. These people need to be reminded that the allegedly regressive cig tax is voluntary, as is the lottery "tax."

[SheLion]

I dont smoke cigarettes, but I see packs for ~3/pack for name brands here in Greensboro, NC regularly.

That's not a bad price, especially if that is for premiums!

[self_evident]

The REPUBLICAN legislature of Michigan has just voted to jack the per/pack tax 75 cents, to make Michigan #3 in the nation in TAXES on cigs. It would have passed easily but HALF of the DEMOCRATS opposed it. Now it will be signed by our REPUBLICAN governor. The revenue is targeted to preserve social welfare spending, no less.

[SheLion]

Wonder what this guy does with that oxygen that he breathes...it's surely not going to his brain.

LOL! My thoughts exactly!

[stands2reason]

"People who buy packs aren't going to switch to cartons. It's not like you're buying milk or bread.

It's funny that people who hate smokers so much claim to know what they're thinking.

[self_evident]

So using prohibitive taxation to change people's behaviour is OK with you?

[SheLion]

This loser has his head up his butt so far, speaking for smokers, that he has no clue that he sounds like a total clown. Figures.

Hahaaaaaaaa! I like that! :)

I posted this mainly for the figures and the comparison. Which is totally mind boggling.

[SheLion]

I thought taxing commerce between the states was prohibited by the constitution. Shouldn't this require a Constitutional amendment?

You know, The Jenkins Act. I was thinking the same thing. They can't go after Tobacco products. They will have to go after EVERY company that sells ANYthing over the net.

They can't just single out tobacco. Sorry. This looks like a 10-year-long job to ME!

[error99]

"...These people need to be reminded that the allegedly regressive cig tax is voluntary, as is the lottery "tax."..."
So what's your point?
ALL taxes are voluntary . . . and yes, before you run off half-cocked,
I do mean ALL.

[SheLion]

Everyone wrings their hands focusing on what's happening in California from smoking to SUV's while your/their neighborhoods/communities/states crumble around you/them....

I just read that yesterday where Gov Davis in Kookiefornia wants to submit a bill for excise taxes on SUV's up to $3,500, AND if you pull up to the gas pump in an SUV, your going to be charged .50 cents extra.

I wish someone would put that man out of his misery!

[SheLion]

it will be signed by our REPUBLICAN governor.

These damn RINOS make me SICK!

[the crow]

thinking about rolling my own. anyone tried any of the machines out there?

[dalereed]

"Tobacco products are not living room furniture. They're an impulse buy," says Larry Downs, executive director of New Jersey Breathes, an antitobacco coalition. "People who buy packs aren't going to switch to cartons. It's not like you're buying milk or bread. People know they're bad."

What an idiot! We have been buying 6 cartons at a time from an indian reservation for years and havev been buying them by the carton ever since I started smoking 50 years ago. By the pack price has always seemed stupid to me.