NYS Cigarette Tax

[Aaron O'Brian]

Okay, I'm not a smoker. I don't like to be around a lot of cigarette. But this seems totally wrong to me. How does everyone else feel about this?

$2.75 tax??

N.Y.'s cigarette tax climbs to nation's highest
By VALERIE BAUMAN – 3 hours ago
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New Yorkers start paying the highest cigarette taxes in the nation Tuesday with the latest $1.25 spike per pack that officials expect to bring in $265 million a year.

Convenience stores across the state and the smokers who will be paying the price are angry about the change, but health officials hail the tax increase as a success. Cigarette taxes will raise a total of $1.3 billion for the state budget in fiscal year 2008-2009, including the new tax.

"Isn't that something — to say that I'm excited about a tax increase? But I am," said Dr. Richard Daines, the New York health commissioner. "This is a public health victory. We know one of the really effective tools to get people off of their nicotine addiction is to the raise the price."

Smokers will be paying $2.75 per pack in state taxes, a jump from the previous tax of $1.50. Before the new tax, the average price of a pack of cigarettes was $5.82 statewide, and about $8 a pack in New York City, which levies its own taxes, Daines said. The new retail price for a pack in the city could now soar past $10 depending on the store.

An estimated 140,000 New Yorkers will stop smoking with this tax increase, Daines said. That number is based on prior tax increases and cigarette consumption.

"Youth are particularly sensitive to the price of cigarettes, so this price increase is expected to prevent 243,000 youth from smoking," Daines said.
Daines said the tax increase is just one part of an $83 million anti-smoking effort that includes advertising and public service announcements, attempts to get tobacco consumption out of youth rated movies and cessation centers around the state.

"What we really want people to do is not to pay the price, but to stop smoking," he said.

Audrey Silk, who heads NYC Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment, said it's ridiculous to expect smokers to quit just because the price is climbing. She switched to rolling her own cigarettes since the last New York City tax increase and suggests other smokers will find similar ways to satisfy nicotine cravings.

"No product has a tax at this rate on it," Silk said. "If there was, there would be screaming, but since we've been beaten into submission and nobody listens to us, what else is there to do? It's unjustifiable and you turn to alternatives, and any consumer group would do the same."

Convenience stores, which historically count on cigarette sales, have also objected to the tax, saying it will drive smokers — and dollars — elsewhere.

"The tax increase is only going to feed that epidemic," said Jim Calvin, president of the New York Association of Convenience Stores. "More and more smokers in New York state are going to abandon our stores that have to charge the tax and shift their purchases to places that don't charge the tax, most notably Native American stores, the Internet and bootleggers."

[Cgoodsp466]

Its called the Indian reservation,I went there this morning to get Gas,and the Cig line was long. To NY State go F yourself.

[crabapples]

I say keep raising the tobacco tax! It doesnt affect me because I dont smoke. Plus with all the medical problems associated with it and the costs incurred by taxpayers because of it, Im all for this type of tax.

[Slim.fsp]

I say keep raising the tobacco tax! It doesnt affect me because I dont smoke. Plus with all the medical problems associated with it and the costs incurred by taxpayers because of it, Im all for this type of tax.

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
_____________________________

You should try and learn from the past. Sooner or later the thugs in government will come for you or something you like to do.

[WNYresident]

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

And that's why we never ever let our government take our guns away. ever.

[Aaron O'Brian]

What is this going to pay for?

Is it just to balance the books?

$2.75 per package + average smoker = A lot of $$$$

I feel if you want to kill yourself by smoking, that is your prerogative. If we follow this logic so McDonalds and Little Debbie cakes with have $2 taxes on them. Where does it stop? Soon your cars Carbon Monoxide is hurt me. Then there's a $2 tax on every mile you drive. It becomes idiotic.

[crabapples]

What is this going to pay for?

Is it just to balance the books?

$2.75 per package + average smoker = A lot of $$$$

I feel if you want to kill yourself by smoking, that is your prerogative. If we follow this logic so McDonalds and Little Debbie cakes with have $2 taxes on them. Where does it stop? Soon your cars Carbon Monoxide is hurt me. Then there's a $2 tax on every mile you drive. It becomes idiotic.

Well they already have fees and taxes on registrations, inspections, fuel surcharges, etc. for vehicles, so its time for everything else to catch up in terms of taxes.

I am all for taxing non-essential foods. Keep the kids and adults from getting even larger than they are now. Maybe Assemblyman Ortiz from NYC was on the right path with his fast food tax, etc.

Eat healthy, exercise and you will live a long, productive life without having to be on 15 taxpayer funded prescriptions...

[Cgoodsp466]

Well they already have fees and taxes on registrations, inspections, fuel surcharges, etc. for vehicles, so its time for everything else to catch up in terms of taxes.

I am all for taxing non-essential foods. Keep the kids and adults from getting even larger than they are now. Maybe Assemblyman Ortiz from NYC was on the right path with his fast food tax, etc.

Eat healthy, exercise and you will live a long, productive life without having to be on 15 taxpayer funded prescriptions...

Ortiz is a chump,keep your hands off my burgers,my cigars and my booze.
Is it true that somewhere a Demorat is worried about someone having a good time.

[Slim.fsp]

Well they already have fees and taxes on registrations, inspections, fuel surcharges, etc. for vehicles, so its time for everything else to catch up in terms of taxes.

I am all for taxing non-essential foods. Keep the kids and adults from getting even larger than they are now. Maybe Assemblyman Ortiz from NYC was on the right path with his fast food tax, etc.

Eat healthy, exercise and you will live a long, productive life without having to be on 15 taxpayer funded prescriptions...

There has been studies that came out of the UK which shows that people who live a "healthy life" actually cost more then people who smoke, and drink. The people who live a "healthy life" live to be old bastards that piss and crap themselves and don't know who they are or who their family is. They waste their "golden years" bitching about the kids and their rock and roll music and waste others peoples time by telling stories about how they walked to school barefoot in 60 inches of snow uphill both ways.

How about this I pay for my own health care and you can pay for your keep the state out of it and then I will not care how you live your life and you don't have to give a crap how I live mine.

[Slim.fsp]

Ortiz is a chump,keep your hands off my burgers,my cigars and my booze.
Is it true that somewhere a Demorat is worried about someone having a good time.

I think this should be equal opportunity. Democrats don't want people to have any fun eating food that is not tofu or bean sprouts, smoking tobacco, or drinking alcohol. Republicans don't want people to have fun by having sex with someone that you are not married to, looking at porn, or gambling.

[Cgoodsp466]

I think this should be equal opportunity. Democrats don't want people to have any fun eating food that is not tofu or bean sprouts, smoking tobacco, or drinking alcohol. Republicans don't want people to have fun by having sex with someone that you are not married to, looking at porn, or gambling.

Politicians are all A holes.

[Enough]

This doesn't have as much to do with smoking as it has to do with a bunch of political whores that have an insatiable thirst for your money any way they can get it!

[Riven37]

I feel OK, also feel with my hands.....OK I like the new tax on Cigs because its a drug, and it ought to be ban all together. I smoked for 38 years, and I wish I never did because my heart wouldn't be such bad shape these days.

I HATE those people who stand in front of a business doorways while the law states 50 to 100 feet from entrance. WHO are they to make me breath in there toxic smoke.

I am all for total BAN on Cigarettes in the state of NY....out of sight out of mind.

[Riven37]

Politicians are all A holes.

Yeah, but their RICH ones, and your not lol

[Slim.fsp]

I feel OK, also feel with my hands.....OK I like the new tax on Cigs because its a drug, and it ought to be ban all together. I smoked for 38 years, and I wish I never did because my heart wouldn't be such bad shape these days.

I HATE those people who stand in front of a business doorways while the law states 50 to 100 feet from entrance. WHO are they to make me breath in there toxic smoke.

I am all for total BAN on Cigarettes in the state of NY....out of sight out of mind.

You authoritarian piece of excrement! You also should pick up a history book and probably the Declaration of Independence, a total ban on a drug was tried between 1919 and 1933 it was called prohibition. Prohibition did bring about changes, those changes were the poisoning of people by manufacturing the alcohol in dangerous ways, the killing of people by factions who fought over turf, the imprisonment of people who harmed no one, and the rise of criminal gangs called the mob. The amount of people who were addicted to that drug did not statistically change. Wow that was a total success!