The price of cigarettes are going to be at least $11.00 a pack in New York beginning July 1st. The New York state Legislature just passed a resolution adding additional $1.60 to the price of cigarettes which will bring the total amount of taxes to $6.85 a pack. New York leads the way with the most taxes on cigarettes in the entire country by far. The additional $1.60 is expected to raise an additional $290 million dollars to help combat the 9.2 Billion dollar short fall New York State is facing with its budget. The state who comes in second with the highest cigarette taxes is Rhode Island with $3.46 a pack. According to the American Heart Association this additional tax is going to make at least 100,000 people quit smoking in New York. Smokers seem to be a fast growing minority and the new tax is helping them quit at a faster rate and creating more revenue for the state, this seems to be a win win for New Yorkers. Do you think there should be a limit or a cap on the amount you can keep on taxing Cigarettes? Are smokers being taking advantage of why don’t they add these additional taxes on fast food and the like? I don’t smoke for all the obvious reasons but it does seem that smokers are easy targets for tax hikes.NY Daily news - http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2010/06/22/2010-06-22_nail_in_coffin_legislature_oks_raising_cig_tax_160_to_us_high_435_a_pack.html#ixzz0raaf1Ptg
Why not legalize and tax marijuana? I've never understood why this has not happened yet.
ReplyDeleteInteresting post. :)
ReplyDeleteI think it's important to assess the goal of the government here.
I believe (in an idealistic way) that the government is taxing cigarettes to protect the health of these smokers. The concern now is whether they plan to eliminate smoking completely or just reduce the numbers.
I don't think the government is looking to phase out smoking, just maybe reduce smoking. I imagine this would be an interesting economic experiment.
Most free market believers like myself don't believe in such interventionist policies. If people want to kill themselves slowly, then fine; the people who don't smoke are the ones who would contribute most to this world, anyway.
People who smoke don't contribute to the world? Check you facts and consider re-writing that sentence inviink. Pretty ignorant statement.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the "sin-tax" I have read and listened to many any argument on this subject over the last 20 or so years from a few states. I find that 90% of the people speaking are two-faced. Out of one side of their face they say smoking is bad and should be out lawed, why would people kill themselves slowly. Then out of the other side of their face they say that it is an excellent source of income for the state, let's tax the hell out of the smokers and drinkers. I hate to break the news to all of them, but if all of us smokers quit tomorrow there will be no great influx of new taxes ! If suddenly the entire nation stops smoking many of our states would go crazy trying to replace the lost revenue. Not sure whoever started this idiotic practice clearly thought out the plan to it's end.
I also find it ironic when a city increases a sin tax to fund a new sports stadium. It's not ok for me to light up a smoke because it is going to kill me, but it is ok for them to sit their asses in the new stadium that I helped pay to build.
Lastly, the American tobacco companies are just about the only 100% American owned and run left. They do not out source, they do not buy tobacco from overseas. Great idea to tax their products and help push them out of business.
You don't like to smoke? That's your choice. I do smoke, that's my choice. Remember when America was a free country? Stop "helping" me make decisions !
I need a smoke, so I'll stop this comment.
It sounds like a good time to quit.
ReplyDeleteHi
ReplyDeleteThought-provoking and well argued post.
In the UK tobacco products are very expensive. The rhetoric is that if the government keeps hiking the price, people will quit smoking. But they don't - addictions aren't that easy to give up, believe me I know. My thoughts are, instead of banging the lung cancer/heart disease drum we should really alert young people to the danger of addiction.
In the UK, 85% of the cost of a packet of cigarettes is tax that goes straight into the government coffers, so all this agenda about smokers costing the health service too much is skewed as somebody who smokes 20 cigarettes a day is paying the equivalent of £35 ($60) per week in extra taxes above someone like me who doesn't smoke. You imagine the loss of revenue if everyone stopped?
Perhaps we could put an 85% tax on junk food which causes more harm than cigarettes as we now have this huge obesity surge and so mnay health related problems from poor diet from fast food. I wonder how many people waiting to have their gastric bands fitted say, wow, I am grateful to all those smokers and drinkers paying extra taxes so I can have this done.
I really dislike smoking but provided you don't blow your smoke on me, its your choice if you smoke or not and we should stop making smokers an easy target for revenue generation