Just wish a few more folks would pay attention to it. Particularly non-smokers. Because if the trend of anti-smoker continues and the taxes keep increasing and the bans become more prevalent, these numbers are going to start to tank. and it will be non-smokers that are going to be hit the hardest to cover the shortfalls.
Smokers know what they are paying, it is the non-smokers who need to be educated. I'm not talking about anti-smokers, they don't care, except when they start losing their share of it.
it's the non-smokers who just don't realize how much the smokers pay into the different state general fund every year, in addition to the everyday taxes that everyone else pays.
And for those non-smokers who think that smokers cost non-smoking taxpayers money - they are WRONG. There have been too many studies NOT done by the tobacco industry to prove it wrong. And most of those were done prior to the MSA, which was supposedly to reimburse the states for the excess taxper fund supposedly spent on smoker health care. The MSA added $4.50 for each carton of cigarettes, until 2023, to pay for it - even though it had alrady been proven it was not neccessary.
So it's the non-smokers who need to be educated about this money, because as smokers start refusing to pay the extortionate prices, someone is going to have to start paying the difference. Non-smokers need to remember this when they support or vote for increased cigarette taxes.
Gabz, you know it as well as I do: when more and more smokers (55 million of us), wise up, buy our cigarettes elsewhere or roll our own, the state will not realize all that tax revenue to fill their honey pots.
They will SURELY have to tap something else. I can't wait!
This will be a huge wake-up call to the non-smokers, you can believe it! They should be wining and dining us, IMHO. We are still Free Americans, and have the freedom of choice to buy whereever we see fit! At least, the government hasn't taken THAT away from us yet. Although they are WORKING ON IT.
Oh yes! Get this! Prescriptions in Maine are so over priced, that Senator Collins has been loading the seniors on BUSES and going over to CANADA for their prescriptions! LOL!
Now, why don't they do that for smokers? Cigarettes are WAY too high in Maine. Oh, but I forget: it's a health issue. heh! MY A$$!