New York Times:
Mississippi's tax on cigarettes, at 18 cents a pack the nation's third-lowest, has not been raised since 1985. Gov. Haley Barbour, a former tobacco lobbyist, has long opposed an increase.
But this year, state lawmakers have gone from giving little thought to a tobacco tax increase to arguing over how much the tax should go up and where the money should go.
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Being a former smoker of 20 years and still a quitter for a couple years now- with confident assurance-if a pack of smokes cost $15.00 ($5 for the pack and $10 in taxes) a pack the smoker would still buy them. Heavily taxing cigarettes will bring a solid income stream. INtroducing a whole new income, i.e. legalizing/decriminalizing marijuana would provide taxes beyond the limits of Avarice.
Wow, they would have so much revenue they wouldn't know what to do with it. I haven't done the math, but I imagine the numbers would be quite large!
It just stuns me, the stupidity of not doing this when the need for the revenue is so great.
Perhaps because this is America, where the individual is more important than the government's "need for revenue".
if that's the case, why stop at $10 a pack? why not $50? imagine all the revenue then.
I'm a non smoker and a midnight toker, I favor legalization of pot. However Then next it's coke and heroin. If you think the medical cost of lung cancer is costly wait until we start getting the hospital cost of 30 year olds having kidney and all other types of medical issues. And please remember many social liberals favor legalizing drugs and prostitution. So its amazing to me how we can worry about our children's future when we would leave them with a medical cost that would bankrupt us. Now I'm 60 years old and will not live to see that but many of you on this blog will.
Tobacco tax should be $10 a pack as far as I'm concerned, who cares if it's regressive. One thing the poor do have is the freedom to choose not to smoke.
and tax beer $100 a six pack- you have the freedom to choose not to drink- don't you?
And what about an excise tax on guns, which kill more people than cigarettes?
Are you still listening to the Beatles singing "Tax man"?
You only care about yourself. We get it.
You know, I do not smoke, never have a day in my life and I think it is a very bad habit.
However I take offense to these inane taxes on vices just because these government officials cannot run their states properly.
It is unfair and should be illegal.
Just because you can't run your states and their budgets properly does not mean that legal and legitimate businesses should have to suffer.
To me this is no different than the Mafi@ shakedowns.
Well said and Thank You
Thank you. I don't think non smokers see this as a threat to them, but when they start taxing things they use with a sin tax maybe they will see why this is unfair on a legal product.
Well, if they do add taxes they should do it as a "pleasure tax" and then jack up the Hamburger and chocolate and whatever junk food is out there. Then we are back at a level playing field.
gambling, liquor and tobacco, about the only way our god-fear'in politicians can generate money anymore
Forget about the damned cigarettes...legalize and tax pot. There's your revenue, and plenty of it.
The pharmacological Calvinists that oppose this need to get real, already! When we see large criminal cartels taking over entire regions and raking in billions and billions of dollars, while we SPEND billions trying to stop it's use, something is seriously askew.
Get off the moral high horse, accept the reality, and just DO IT!
There is way too much money involved in the war on drugs. You have to pay the customs agents to enforce it at the border, you pay the local cops and vice squads to enforce the laws on the books, you pay the lawyers to argue the cases of the accused before the paid Judges in the courts. The judges pass the criminal off to the probation officer who gets paid, or they send them to jail where all those guards get paid, they get out and have to go to rehab classes, which cost them money, and the teacher of the class gets paid... And on and on and on.
That is why drugs will never be legalized in this country: So many jobs and money are created/in place because of them.
dems will use this ruse to increase their spending. as people quit or find other means of obtaining smokes the states 'revenue'/taxes will drop but hey guess what spending doesn't and hey guess what they'll find another ruse to abscond peoples money.
read the full article- it talks mainly about the southern states who are raising taxes. like Gov. Barbour(R) in Mississippi.
Get rid of these silly, regressive "sin" taxes and all other sales/consumption/corporate taxes. Instead, add $1 million and $10 million individual income tax brackets at about 65% and 90% respectively. It's ridiculous that the top rate in our progressive income tax kicks in at about $250K.
Tobacco can't be taxed out of society any more than alcohol or marijuana can be prohibited out of society. All this does is make it harder for disadvantaged people to recover from (arguably) poor lifestyle decisions, particularly to the extent that it drives them to interact with criminal elements.
This is exactly why reasonable people turn to the likes of Rush Limbaugh for their political orientation. We have to stop equating taxes with punishment. The purpose of taxation is to provide public goods that strengthen our communities. But this is punitive, judgmental, and demeaning.
The only way in which we can sustain an economy that, in cultivating ambition, creates winners and losers is to include a mechanism whereby the winners give back to society, without whom their fortunes would not be possible, so that their successes are broadly respected and appreciated.
If we continue loading tax burden on the losers, all we'll cultivate is resentment and hopelessness, a profound distrust of public institutions and a profound antipathy toward private wealth. We shouldn't use the tax code as an instrument of social change. We should use it as redemption for the winners.
YOU CRAZY.
NO GOVERNMENT SHOULD TAKE OVER 40% OF INCOME PERIOD!
I'M DEMOCRAT, BUT I'M NOT CRAZY.
IF I HAVE THE CHANCE TO MAKE 20 MILLION I WANT TO KEEP AT LEAST 12 MILLION.
YOU TALKING ABOUT ONLY I GET TO KEEP 4 MILLION?
You do understand that only half of your hypothetical $20 million would be taxed at 90%, $9 million at 65%, etc., right?
Also, what in the world would you do with $12 million per year in net income? What in the world would you be contributing to society that would justify that level of personal consumption?
I don't think that the government should take more than 40% of any income less than about 7 times the poverty level. But at a certain point, income stops being a means of providing for your family and becomes mainly a form of market feedback.
Instead of flaunting your ostentatious wealth, why not flaunt the bounty of public goods that your remarkable success made possible for your community? Why be a selfish jerk when you can be a respected hero?
maybe we should tax the Caps Lock button on keyboards.................
Taxes to cigarettes may be regressive and hit low income people hardest, but they also encourage more to give up smoking.
I think it is a winning combo despite the unfairness issue.
When unfair taxes are levied on some, all will suffer eventually. And you can take that to the bank.
Forget increasing taxes on tobacco and start taxing truly irresponsible behavior like teenage pregnancy.
They'd make a lot more money if they'd legalize marijuana.
Be prepared to see many states start to look seriously at legalization of marijuana. The cops will fight it with a major propaganda blitz pushing the discredited "gateway drug" crap because it will mean a lot less money coming from the Federal Government for law enforcement. But when you take a serious look at the potential revenue for the states from legal sales of marijuana and the fact that marijuana is no more of a "gateway drug" than cigarettes the cops will loose this time.
I agree. Marijuana is definitely not a "gateway drug." I started smoking cigarettes before I tried marijuana the first time. Smoking it did not lead me to do other drugs, in fact I decided it was not for me. It made me realize that no drugs at all were for me, since I didn't like the disembodied feeling. Marijuana has many uses. Its herbal, a plant. There are no real lasting side affects. Not when comparing it to alcohol or cigarettes. It helps people deal with pain, and it could also be used as a sleep aid. It isn't addicting like other drugs, prescription drugs included. There is definitely money to be made there. Paper, and certain clothing used to be made from the plant fibers as well. It was the cotton growers that had the growing of it outlawed to boost their profits. I think that it could once again replace some of these things, and it would help in replenishing forests. The legalization of it would be good for the country on two fronts.
Don't forget the money we would save by not investigating, prosecuting, and imprisoning non-violent drug offenders. And the increased tax revenues from the salaries these people would earn at their legitimate jobs they would be able to get and hold if they didn't have a criminal record.
Thank you for your post. It is so nice to see someone discussing marijuana sensibly. I have been doing a lot of research on it and you named quite a few good points to legalize it. It grows almost anywhere, takes little water, no pesticides, can be used for bio fuel (corn can then be used for food), can be used to make biodegradable plastics, contains Omega 3's, is good for depression, treating anorexia, nausea, etc.
And then, when ordinary people grow their own in their backyard, we can arrest them and imprison them for tax evasion.
If there's a budget shortfall among the states listed here, a nice graduated income tax would make up for it nicely. Stop trying to tax our behavior to make up for it.
Marijuana should be legalized, because the government has no right to regulate what we do with our own bodies. Arguments for legalizing it so that the government can make craptons of money off it are terrible arguments.
good point- but would you rather it stay illegal (as it is) or make it legal with a tax on it?
Fact is, most people don't have the knowledge or patience to grow decent pot, even if it was legal to do so. It should be taxed and sold at liquor stores to adults over the age of 21. People can make their own wine or beer for their own consumption, so I think it would be okay for people to grow for their own consumption, as long as they don't become dealers without paying the appropriate taxes. Lots of people would gladly pay the taxes if it meant they didn't have to worry about the police knocking on their doors.
I noticed the other day Marlboros in Montana $5.99 a pack. Camels are $5.45 a pack. Ouch!
I have torn feelings about this. Cigarettes are an easy target for revenues. Don't raise property taxes or income taxes, go after cigarettes, because smokers don't have much political clout. Where I'm torn is studies have shown pretty conclusively that these taxes lower smoking rates and give people one more reason to quit, but at the same time, it seems like such a regressive tax because the majority of smokers are lower income wage earners.
Poor nicotene addicts have to pay more taxes. Boo hoo. Let's tax everything that's additive - drugs, booze, porn, hookers, television. That way, everyone has to kick-in something.
We could just tax crabs, crablover.
Hopefully a higher tax on cigarettes will mean less people smoking. It works with the gasoline tax.
But what is it working to do, so if we all quit smoking suddenly children will not need the healthcare that we are funding?
At least with gas tax and higher prices people drive less so we don't have to buy foreign oil but that is supply and demand - cigarette tax isn't about supply and demand, it is about getting funding for a pet project where most people will not complain because it is something they don't do and they don't like but how much of your infrastructure and programs will be impacted if everyone stopped smoking ... think about it.
What scares me is the segment of the population that will be demonized next.
Many years ago in California "junk food" was taxed to raise money...taxing potatoe chips, cheetos, sodas, etc., Craziness....but I remember it...
My carton of Marlboro lights in Chicago suburbs went from $65 to $78 and the guy told me that the tax is going up again next week. I live in the city but work in the suburbs so I buy them out there because they are already are at $80+ in the city. I need to driver further to get out of cook county if I want to avoid most of these taxes.
As another poster stated I do not have a problem paying additional tax when it is for a good cause but the amount of these taxes keep getting heftier as the tax base (smokers) declines so my big issue with taxing smoking is where are they going to get the money if we all stopped smoking?
They will just come up with a new sin tax on something they declare as a sin. The real sin is that we a losing are personal choices and freedoms.
My poor mom is in a nursing home and they force them to go outside to smoke. When you see 80 year olds out there in 30 below weather you know it is an addiction. Forcing them to give up the one thing that still give them a little pleasure in life is a sad thing to do but many of them are on fixed incomes and their kids who buy the cigarettes for them are getting very vocal about the increase in price.
How much more taxes can you put on one sin?
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First Posted: 03-21-09 11:33 AM | Updated: 04-21-09 05:12 AM