Free Republic

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio on Sunday admonished former mayor Rudy Giuliani for his repeated recent comments that "responsibility is on the black community" for reducing the necessity of police officers in their communities. "I think he fundamentally misunderstands the reality," said de Blasio on ABC's This Week. "There is a problem here. There is a rift here that has to be overcome. You cannot look at the incident in Missouri; another incident in Cleveland, Ohio; and another incident in New York City all happening in the space of weeks and act like there's not a problem."

The unelected and unaccountable sages at the World Health Organization (WHO) can’t seem to help themselves or resist the temptation to try to regulate the behavior of everyone on the planet. This is a shame, really, because a group like that could actually do some good if they stuck to trying to get basic supplies and medical care to people in remote, poverty stricken countries. But rather than devoting themselves to such laudable goals, they’re once again pushing to get every government on the planet to jack up sin taxes on tobacco.(This is something they’ve tried before, as I wrote...

High-cigarette tax jurisdictions are losing out on up to $729 million in tax revenue each year due to illicit trade in tobacco products.That is according to a new study from the nonprofit research organization RTI International. The figure represents an upper-end estimate of aggregate revenue foregone by the cities of Boston, Philadelphia, New York, Providence and Washington, DC. All five are top destinations for cigarette smugglers seeking to take advantage of high cigarette tax rates that push economy-minded buyers, including underage smokers seeking to avoid high, legal prices, to the black market. In New York, which boasts the highest cigarette...

President Obama’s plan to raise the federal cigarette tax by 94 cents a pack would put 2 million low and middle-income kids through preschool, a new report has concluded. Obama’s fiscal 2014 budget proposal calls for a near doubling of the tax, from $1.01 to $1.95 per pack, with the proceeds going toward an expansion of early childhood education. Taxes on other tobacco products would increase proportionally, bringing the estimated additional revenue to an estimated $78 billion over the next decade.“Taken together, these two measures would help ensure a future of smart, healthy kids nationwide and in every state,” according...

Asking voters to slap a $1-per-pack tax on cigarettes to fund cancer research seems like a cinch in health-crazy California, where lighting up already is banned in bars, public buildings and on many of its golden beaches. But the tobacco tax, pitched to voters under Proposition 29 in Tuesday's primary, teetered on the brink of defeat Wednesday just months after opinion polls showed widespread support. The measure was trailing by about 63,000 votes, although still-uncounted ballots could number as high as 1 million, by some estimates.

A measure that would have increased state taxes on cigarettes by a dollar was narrowly defeated, the Secretary of State's office reported early Wednesday. Proposition 29, which would have raised $810 million a year for cancer research and smoking cessation programs, lost by just 1.6 percent of the votes, with almost 51 percent of voters saying no and just more than 49 percent voting yes. The measure would have made California - which currently has a lower tobacco tax than 32 other states - the state with the 16th-highest cigarette tax in the country.

Here's a primary prediction: Despite being seriously outspent by big tobacco, the Proposition 29 people get a last-minute infusion of campaign cash and squeak out a win for their measure tacking another $1-per-pack tax onto cigarettes. No sooner does the new tax go into effect, my street contacts tell me, than Indian tribes will open tobacco shops at their casinos, where buyers can escape state taxes and buy cigarettes on the cheap.Just as quickly, smugglers will start rolling in truckloads of smokes from Nevada, Arizona and Oregon, as street dealers realize there is more money to be made selling hot...

ANNAPOLIS — Maryland health advocates are celebrating an upcoming tax increase on cigars and smokeless tobacco, but they aren’t stopping there. Gov. Martin O'Malley, a Democrat, is expected to sign a bill Tuesday that will raise the state’s tax on non-cigarette tobacco products for the first time since 1999, in an effort to combat what state health officials say is increased use of the products among teens. The measure is part of $260 million in tax increases that were approved during last week’s special session and will be signed into law Tuesday. About $247 million of the increases will come...

The Wisconsin chapter of the American Cancer Society is applauding a letter sent out Friday by the state Department of Revenue that warns the owners of "roll your own tobacco" machines that they must comply with state law and quit avoiding paying cigarette taxes. According to state law, if a retailer or the retailer's customer operates a so-called RYO machine on the retailer's premises that makes cigarettes with loose tobacco, the retailer becomes a cigarette manufacturer and distributor. In that case, the retailer must obtain manufacturer and distributor permits from the Department of Revenue. Under state law, the retailer also...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Fourteen states and the District of Columbia raised cigarette taxes in 2009, but none of the new money went to programs to cut smoking and prevent tobacco-related disease, U.S. health officials said on Thursday. Higher cigarette taxes can substantially curb smoking but states can make an even bigger dent by investing the new funds in programs to help people quit, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. "None of the 15 states dedicated any of the new excise tax revenue by statute to tobacco control," lead author Karen Debrot of the CDC's Office on Smoking...

"I can make a firm pledge . . . no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase." Remember that? It was Barack Obama, campaigning to become president last Sept. 12 in Dover, N.H. Indeed, he promised repeatedly that 95% of American families would get a tax cut. So it's especially fitting that he chose April Fools Day to implement his first tax increase -- which will fall mostly on individuals and families who do not make anywhere near $250,000 per year. Early in February, the president signed a law to triple the federal...

SACRAMENTO – A strong majority of California voters favor the health care overhaul plan passed Monday by the Assembly and the $2-per-pack tobacco tax needed to fund the measure, according to the latest Field Poll. The poll shows that voters support the plan either “strongly” or “somewhat” by a nearly 3-to-1 ratio, 64 percent to 23 percent. Sixty-three percent of voters also support the proposed tobacco tax, while 33 percent oppose it. “Voters are pretty much in sync with the proposal going through the Legislature,” Field Poll director Mark DiCamillo said. The poll is a boost for Assembly Speaker Fabian...

(CNSNews.com) - The increase in federal tobacco taxes that congressional Democrats are proposing to fund their new healthcare initiative is being praised by anti-smoking advocates as an effective way to discourage tobacco sales. "We are strongly in favor of the SCHIP proposal," Erika Sward, director of National Advocacy for the American Lung Association, told Cybercast News Service. "We see it as a win-win for children's health." "The first win is that the cigarette tax will be increased by 61 cents, which will have a significant impact on youth smoking rates," she said. "And the other win is that millions of...

AUGUSTA (Sep 20): Cigarette taxes in Maine — eyed as a source of new revenue for the state and federal government — have come in short by about $800,000 a month, on average, since January, adding to an expected budget hole legislators will have to fill when they return next year. From January through June, cigarette tax revenue was below budget by $5 million. Revenue was down another $850,000 in July — the start of the state’s fiscal year — and $600,000 in August. No one is quite sure what is happening with sales in Maine, but it appears more...

The Senate is now debating a bill to take low-income children (including illegals and children of illegals) off of state-run health insurance programs in order to stick them on some new federal health insurance program. Trent Lott just said the proposal before them is already $60 billion over "the baseline"..."and that's before it's even gone to committee." Sorry I couldn't fit a BOHICA alert in the title, but still thought some of you might want to know this is going on right now, live.

As part of an increase in tobacco taxes designed to pay for children's health insurance, the nickel-per-cigar tax that has ruled the industry could rise to as much as $10 per cigar. "I'm not sure in the history of man, since our forefathers founded the country in 1776, that there's ever been a tax increase of 20,000 percent," said Newman, who runs the Tampa business founded by grandfather Julius Caesar Newman. "They had the Boston Tea Party for less than this." The Democrat controlled Congress has sought an extra $35-billion to $50-billion for the state children's health insurance program. The...

Members of Congress seeking to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to cover children from wealthier families are exploring new ways to pay for it. The Senate Finance Committee generally has agreed to reauthorize SCHIP for five years with a $35 billion expansion funded by an increase in the federal tobacco tax by 61 cents per pack.[1]While a tobacco tax is a politically popular funding source, it has several significant shortcomings: A tobacco tax disproportionately burdens low-income Americans, lacks long-term stability, and ultimately results in significant shifting of health care costs onto others. With the number of...

RAPID CITY -- A big problem is looming for state government, and it all stems from rapidly falling sales of tobacco products, according to state Sen. Bill Napoli, R-Rapid City. Effective Jan. 1, the state tax increased by $1 for a 20-stick pack of cigarettes and by $1.25 for a 25-cigarette pack. The tax on all other items, such as cigars and chewing tobacco, jumped

Lost in the national attention of the senatorial race and stem cell research amendment was amendment #3. It was a proposal to raise taxes by four cents a cigarette. Some of the revenues collected was to go to smoking cessation education and health care of the uninsured;none being allocated to general revenue. Blah blah blah, you know the drill. It was defeated by 51.5 to 48.5 percent. There was not much of a discussion of the amendment in my area in the media or local talk shows. Twenty-four percent of the adult population in Missouri smokes. I would venture to...

California is poised to enact the largest one-time cigarette tax hike ever -- adding $2.60 per pack -- on top of an already existing 87 cent excise tax, bringing the average price for a pack of cigarettes to $6.55, says Nanette Byrnes in BusinessWeek. The new measure is particularly worrisome for tobacco companies because of California's large share of the tobacco market; the state is home to 9 percent of all U.S. smokers. In addition, cigarette makers argue that the tax is unfair, and an irresponsible spending of the public's money: ** The measure does not require that all tax...