It comes as no surprise: New Yorkers are going to Pennsylvania to by tobacco products. Why? Well, it could have something to do with the recent tax increase. Pennsylvania, essentially, is gaining the tax revenue that New York hoped to generate for itself. The number of cigarette tax stamps New York sold in July fell [...]
Continue reading about Proof: New York Tobacco Tax Drives Customers across State Lines
The New York Association of Convenience Stores reports that cigarette sales by its members fell 25 percent to 35 percent last month. Does this means that people are quitting? Or, more realistically, is it because people are going across state lines, where the taxes aren’t severe? Let’s do the math on this one. There are [...]
Continue reading about New York Cigarette Sales off by a Third
It would be a mistake to ignore the little guy. In Iowa, smaller, filtered cigars – which look like cigarettes – are providing a bit of tax relief to smokers who have seen their spending creep necessarily higher. They don’t taste like cigarettes, but at prices much lower than traditional cigarettes, these products are becoming [...]
Continue reading about Iowa Cigarette Smokers Turning to Little Cigars
July 1, 2010, a new cigarette tax hike took effect in New York and just after a few weeks it looks like it is proving to be more troublesome than politicians thought. Now with smokers crossing state lines to pick up smokes and illegal smuggling operations it looks as if they are weighting their options. [...]
Continue reading about New York’s Cigarette Tax Hike Looking Like a Loss
Interestingly, this archived article is full of such frou-frou that it is barely readable these days. However, it is a charming look at a battle that has been all but one. In 1927 the Manchester Guardian noted that cigarette smoking was quickly surpassing cigar smoking and on Lord Birkenhead was, for one, appalled.
Continue reading about Heaven forehand: A look at cigars vs. cigarettes from 1927
Under a proposed smoking ban in Denville, New Jersey, smoking in the wrong place three times could land you behind bars. The measure was introduced with a 5 – 0 vote at the city council meeting this week and would prohibit smoking in parking lots, bleachers, playgrounds and the sidewalks that adjoin them. Violations would [...]
Continue reading about Three Strikes on NJ Smoking Law Could Mean Jail
A new law requires the U.S. Postal Service to keep cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products out of the mail. The new law, “Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act, Public Law NO. 111-154,” means that:
Continue reading about Post Office Won’t Let You Send Cigarettes
We’re coming down to the wire, and it looks like cigarettes are going to get slammed in the next New York budget. Of course, attitudes toward cigarette taxes are just as screwed up as those toward cigar taxes. They are priced to get people to stop, which is seen by many as a laudable goal, [...]
Reasoning with anti-smoking advocates is largely waste of time? Why? They’re impervious to reason. One only needs to take a quick peek at a recent not-so-SmartMoney article by Jack Hough to see this in action. He supports raising cigarette taxes to “punishing levels, as a handful of cash-strapped states have done this year and as [...]
Continue reading about Tobacco Taxes: Understand Your Opponent
It’s not often a tax loophole cuts in our favor, and even this occasional win is enough to send the anti-smoking community into orbit. There’s one such “loophole” in President Obama’s children’s health insurance program that provides $250 million in relief to people who consume loose tobacco. It was a twist of marketing, which merely [...]
