Cigarette Tax To Be Voted On Any Minute Now

Lawmakers are expected to vote today on a budget extender bill which includes adding a new $1.60 state tax to packs of cigarettes. Taxes on other tobacco products would also increase from 46% of the wholesale price to 75%, and, sorry smokers, packs sold on Indian reservations in the state will not be immune. If passed, the tax could raise an estimated $440 million for the state (up from the $290 million estimation this weekend). But many smokers and tobacco merchants are upset at the proposed tax hike.

"I don't think it's really fair to just attack the smokers," West Harrison resident Darlene O'Keeffe told WCBS, and business owners say the taxes are so high it may put some people out of business. Tobacconist George Vasquez said, "Right now, we're paying 46 percent state tax, and they want to bring it up to 90 [percent]. I think that will put a lot of...people into the unemployment line." State Republicans have said they will not support any emergency bill that involves raising taxes, but the consequence could be a dreaded Albany shutdown.

If the bill passes, the state would also attempt to curb New Yorkers from avoiding the taxes by buying cigarettes online. The Department of Taxation and Finance has already collected over $3 million from New Yorkers trying to avoid the taxes in the past four years, billing 7,780 NYC residents. They will presumably step up their efforts if the city's packs reach up to $11.

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By Jaya Saxena in News on June 21, 2010 10:56 AM

Comments [rss]

SP's Ghost

This is a fantastic idea. I just wonder why they decided on $1.60. Why not just make it a nice even $2?

There should also be a law passed like they have in Japan: no throwing cigarette butts into the street. There should be stiff penalties for doing that. Like $250 for the first offense, and a night in jail plus 40 hours of community service for the second offense. Penalties increasing beyond that. NYPD officers should be given a bonus for each one they catch in the act to give them the incentive to enforce the law.

In Japan, where they smoke like fiends, you will not see a single cigarette butt in the streets, even in the working class neighborhoods. If people don't have respect for their surroundings, you have to teach them respect with punishment.

Meribor

That's great, but if NY wants smokers to dispose of their butts properly, then it would be helpful if they provided some public receptacles for the purpose.

SP's Ghost

It's called put it in your pocket (carry some kind of receptacle for this purpose) and throw it in a trash can when you are near one. You are a smoker, you are responsible for your butts. And all your other trash for that matter.

Splicer

It's called a garbage can.

East Village Feed

No smoking, no drinking soda, and no salt.

NY, you are my mother.

verbal

Just like Obama wants to spread the wealth, NYS should spread the pain. Constantly singling out one class for tax increases is absurd, if the Dems in Albany had any balls they would hit the unions and they could balance the budget overnight.

What happens when they successfully tax cigs into oblivion, who will they come after then?

hotstepper

this is extortion.

New York, i'm not paying to fluff your tax roll anymore for the pleasure to smoke a fucking cigarette. i'm off to www.cheap-cig.com bitches!

and if cigarette taxes are any lesson, why would we want weed legalized? keep it illegal and tax-free!

hotstepper

gothamist who built your website, Yugo?

it is all jacked up today.

hotstepper

this is fucking extortion.

i'm not paying to fluff your tax roll anymore for the pleasure to smoke a fucking cigarette. i'm off to www.cheap-cig.com bitches!

and if cigarette taxes are any lesson, why on earth would we want weed legalized? keep it illegal and untaxed!

Petey

I don't smoke, but the taxes in NY are killing me. I can't wait to move out of this state.

Christopher

Can't I just smoke myself to death without going broke?

LeLY

I find such tender joy in the exploitation of addiction. Also, the growing fiscal dependence on something that is perpetually damned. Then again it always runs that way:

Smoking, boozing, and gambling fund so much government.

Isn't it about time we legalized weed and cocaine and taxed them? I mean shit...if tobacco draws that much just think of the money we could make on pot and blow!