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.