Tobacco News

Gov. David Paterson announced over the weekend that he plans to raise cigarette tax statewide. The proposal will be included in his next budget-extending legislation.

The new tax is slated to place $1.60 tax on the cost of a pack of cigarettes, raising it from $2.75 to $4.35—higher than the previous proposal to add $1 per pack. The taxes are projected to raise $290 million in extra revenue to help close a budget gap of $9.2 billion, reported Business Week.
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A rare bit of good news for cigar smokers—taxes in California are going down.

The California Board of Equalization will lower the state’s surtax on Other Tobacco Products, which includes premium cigars, on July 1. California is one of the largest cigar markets in the country.

Each year, the BOE reviews the state’s sales tax structure to ensure it is fair and uniform, then adjusts accordingly.
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New York’s top court on Tuesday rejected prosecutors’ cases against two Indian-owned convenience stores in Central New York for selling tax-free cigarettes, reported The Utica Observer-Dispatch. The ruling came as welcome news to the Oneida Indian Nation, while local critics questioned the basis of the decision. Read more

Gov. Mark Sanford vetoed a bill Tuesday that would have raised the state’s cigarette tax from 7 cents a pack to 57 cents, a move that was met with praise from Grand Strand smokers and tobacco sellers. Read more

IN A welcome piece of news for the government, voters have overwhelmingly approved the decision to increase the tobacco excise by 25 per cent.
Although the vast majority of smokers oppose the impost, which will raise about $5.6 billion over the next four years, fortunately for the government, smokers are in the minority. Read more

Smokers will be paying more for tobacco from tomorrow, and the price is going to keep on rising.
The government brought legislation to parliament to raise the excise duty on tobacco, meaning cigarettes are set to become even more expensive. Read more

One area that South Dakota lawmakers will specifically target is tobacco prevention. In 2006, voters approved raising the state’s tobacco tax by a dollar on each pack of cigarettes. Read more

Cash-strapped states are hitting smokers hard in the pocketbook, raising cigarette taxes to help plug budget shortfalls. Read more

Lawmakers on Wednesday agreed to raise South Carolina’s lowest-in-the-nation cigarette tax as part of the state’s $5.1 billion budget. Read more

Convenience stores and tobacco shops bristled Wednesday at attempts to balance the state’s budget on their backs.
Proposals to increase taxes on cigarettes, tobacco and alcohol would hit convenience stores hard, said Thomas Palace, executive director of the Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association of Kansas. As the Senate Taxation Committee considered hikes to the state’s cigarette and tobacco taxes Wednesday, he joked that he considered wearing a big bull’s-eye to the Capitol. Read more