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Where there's smoke, there's ire
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Source:http://www.southtownstar.com/,2010-05-15
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When Pamela Blouin opened her Evergreen Park tobacco shop three decades ago, cigarettes cost about $5.25 per carton - nearly $3 less than what a single pack costs in some places today, she recalls.
Blouin bristles at the thought they could soon go even higher.
"It's preposterous," Blouin said of a proposal before Illinois lawmakers to double the state's tax on cigarettes.
Illinois lawmakers have not settled on a plan to solve the state's staggering $13 billion budget deficit in the next fiscal year that starts July 1. The General Assembly missed a self-imposed deadline to pass a new state budget last Friday.
Lawmakers say they're hoping to come back later in the month. Part of the solution may include a doubling of the state's tax on cigarettes from 98 cents to $1.98 per pack.
Cigarette retailers across the state and in the Southland are bracing for the possible tax hike.
Such a move would only push more smokers to Indiana, Blouin said.
"It absolutely gets my goat," Blouin, owner of the Smokey Bear tobacco shop, said. "We're hit every single time because governments don't know how to work. They just waste money and waste money, then they go and tax someone else - and the somebody else is always the cigarette smokers."
According to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Illinois ranks 32nd in the nation with its 98-cent state cigarette tax. The federal government's cigarette tax increased last year by 62 cents to $1.01 per pack.
Smokers who buy their cigarettes in Cook County also pay a $2-per-pack county tax, according to spokesman James Ramos.
The last time Illinois raised its cigarette tax was in 2002 when it went from 72.5 cents to 98 cents, state revenue department spokeswoman Sue Hofer said. Raising the state's tax $1 is expected to bring in between $330 million to $340 million per year, Hofer said.
Zaid Eid, owner of Tobacco Plus Inc. in Matteson, said he stopped selling most cigarettes about five years ago after taxes started increasing. Now he almost exclusively sells cigars.
A spike in Illinois' tax will only push business to Indiana and other bordering states, Eid said.
"Even though there's a law that you cannot drive back with more than one or two cartons, nobody's sitting on the border checking," Eid said. "Nobody would come and pay $70 or $80 a carton of cigarettes in Cook County. It's impossible. Even desperate people would not do it."
Joann Meyers, owner of Tinley Park Tobacco, said taxes have gotten so high she usually sends customers looking to buy cartons to Will County. Smokers who buy cigarettes in her shop usually are only doing so out of convenience, she said.
"It is what it is," Meyers said. "If it goes through, it's bad for us."
Still, increasing the cigarette tax in Illinois would improve health and save the state more than $2 billion in health care costs over the next decade, said Mike Grady, a spokesman for the American Cancer Society of Illinois.
Tobacco use among youths would drop, Grady said. And an increase might be the nudge adults who have been wanting to quit need to follow through, he said.
"We feel like there's still a very good chance, and we're going to keep working on this," Grady said. "We're very hopeful that when the General Assembly completes its work this spring that this measure will have passed." |
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Tobacco Hot news and Information.
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Ark. tobacco funds earning little interest
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Source: http://www.timesunion.com/,2010-09-07 |
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A state lawmaker is questioning why Arkansas' tobacco settlement money isn't bringing in more interest and says the Legislature should manage some of the investment if the state Board of Finance can't bring in enough money to cover costs.
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Japan's smoking rates hit record low, survey shows
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Source: http://www.marketwatch.com/,2010-09-03 |
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The percentage of smokers in Japan has fallen for the 15th straight year and set a new record low, the results of a nationwide survey released Wednesday by Japan Tobacco Inc. (2914.TO) showed.
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Decline in Smoking Takes Toll on Tobacco Farmers
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Source: http://www.thetakeaway.org/,2010-05-20 |
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