NY raises cigarette tax from 8¢ to $1.50, sales down 64%

Jeslek

Jeslek

Banned
SOURCE: http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/59821.htm

Cigarette sales in the city plummeted last month, with just one-third as many packs sold as before the city added a hefty $1.50 tax, The Post has learned.

In September, 10.5 million cigarette packs crossed store counters - compared to 29.2 million in June, according to sources basing estimates on tax-stamp data.

That's a 64 percent decrease.

On July 1, the city hiked its tax on cigarettes from 8 cents to $1.50 a pack, sending many smokers scrambling for cheaper sources of nicotine on the Internet and from tax-free Indian reservations.
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No this is not a smoking rant, I'm just curious... And this is interesting. You can only tax up to a point. After that, people will find other ways and you will lose revenue. I don't think the government cares if you smoke or not, they just want the $$$.

Canada used to tax cigarettes so badly that at one point smuggled cigarettes outsold legal ones. At that point the lost so much revenue from lost taxes, that they decided its best to decrease the tax.

Hm... lol
 
They still took in 15,750,000 in taxes on the cigs they sold, compared to 2,336,000 that they took in last month. I'd say they're still ahead.
 
I'd like to see the gasoline tax raised one dollar per gallon...

I smoke, but I also don't worry about state taxes... ;)
 
I'm not sorry at all. I'd love to see these damn things go to $10 bucks a pack. Same goes for gas & alcohol and the like.
 
but I think that this was a good move
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You guys that think this is a good idea do not understand. Can you say tyrany? The government can do whatever the hell they want, but the bottom line is the people want what they want. This is how blackmarkets are brought up. Then our tax dollars will go to the police force to crack down on the illegal cigarette market. It's not worth their efforts to keep people from smoking. That worm has been let out of the jar. Cigarettes, alcohol, drugs and the like are here to stay. How far are we willing to go to keep people from doing what they want?
 
Mitch has it :) I can't say I pity the people that smoke, but what the government is doing isn't right. There shouldn't be taxes on alcohol and tobacco in the first place.
 
I wouldn't say we don't get it, i think we simply disagree. We ought to tax the hell out of them and use it to pay for all the unpaid medical costs. Do you really think we're spending that much to crack down on blackmarket tobacco and alcohol? I don't think so. Smokers should have rights, but i'd love to see it get more difficult for kids to start. High costs are an excellent deterrent.
 
No, I don't believe we spend a lot of money to crackdown on illegal cigarettes/alcohol now. But this would be the first step in that direction. They'll probably increase it slowly to the point of where it seems normal. Like, if cigarettes were $10/pack when my kids were old enough, then it may not be a big deal to them. If they were to jack it up that high in the near future, then a blackmarket would be some peoples answer. I doubt that blackmarket would get as big as the market for illegal drugs simply because cigarettes are not illegal.
 
HeXp£Øi± said:
I wouldn't say we don't get it, i think we simply disagree. We ought to tax the hell out of them and use it to pay for all the unpaid medical costs. Do you really think we're spending that much to crack down on blackmarket tobacco and alcohol? I don't think so. Smokers should have rights, but i'd love to see it get more difficult for kids to start. High costs are an excellent deterrent.
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Hm, I hate stealing from the rich to give to the poor. Or to pay off something else. There should be no state-run medicare in the first place. There should be no blackmarket tobacco and alcohol, except the really viscious stuff.
 
Stealing from the rich to give to the poor?
When some homeless bum dies of a heart attack or cancer who do you think foots the bill? 600,000 people die from smoking every year. How many of those do taxpayers pay for? When some drunk kills himself in a highway accident who pays to clean his guts off of the street?
All due respect, that is stealing from the rich.
 
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