New York – State plans a $1.60 increase per pack in the cigarette tax to the highest in the nation as well as a long-delayed plan to crack down on the sale of cigarettes by tribes to non-Indians.
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The plan includes a big increase in the tax on chewing tobacco, cigars, pipe tobacco and other tobacco products.
New York state Budget Director Robert Megna says the revenue producers are still being negotiated with legislative leaders and tribes in New York. But he says they will be part of an emergency spending bill Monday.
The Legislature will either have to accept the whole package or reject the weekly emergency appropriation and shut down government.
The package is expected to raise $440 million for New York as it faces a $9.2 billion deficit.
It’s a chilul Hashem that we even need to see news of cigarettes on a Jewish site, several poskim have already ruled them assur, yet people still, who wouldn’t dream of eating something that’s treif, put this poison into their body and transgress the Torah mitzvah of guarding one’s health!
Go for it! Make the tax $10/pack, or even $20/pack. Once cigarettes become unaffordable, people who are addicted will buy their last few packs they may need to quit, then will be done with that deadly, disgusting and discourteous habit.
Many people, young and old, great and simple, have quit smoking, even cold turkey. If YOU still smoke, then YOU can do it, too, BS”D. No excuses.
People who are addicted will pay $20 a pack, even more. That is what addiction means. Tobacco has long been considered more addictive than heroin. What junkie wouldn’t pay $20 for a fix, much less $20 for a full day of fixes!
The facile solution to the dual addictions of cigarettes and spendthrift public spending is to raise the cigarette tax. But what will be when it becomes apparent, as with any other controlled substance addiction, that lives and families will always suffer at the expense of serious addictions? Raise taxes enough, people will deplete their savings, sell their assets, downsize their housing, steal and even take food from their children to feed the addiction. Not to mention the HUGE black market, and the massive increase in organised crime, that will result.
The range of anti-tobacco restrictions that are already in place have done much to remove smoking from the day-to-day lives of the vast majority of Americans. There is no reason not to believe that this salubrious trend will continue on its own accord without need for recourse to proposals that will exacerbate rather than cure the problem.
Reply to 4. It looks like your problem is dealing with other people’s opinions. Why don’t you admit that.
The problem with these knuckle head politicians is that the higher the taxes the better the incenticve to drive to nj and pick up a few cartons – the market will dictate what they can get and then purchases are made out of state or on the internet _ net result _ LESS income for the state _ but who are we to teach these smart bureaucrats how to run a business
Studies show that higher cigarette prices do reduce consumption, especially among younger people who may not be so addicted yet, and it might discourage many from even trying smoking.
The antismoking laws in NY State aren’t strict enough though. We need laws like in California, where smoking is banned on public property including sidewalks, beaches, and parks. Some of us are very sensitive to cigarette smoke, and we deserve the right to walk down the sidewalk or sit in a public park and not get cigarette smoke blown in our faces.
Who pays retail for cigs anyway? Don’t most of us just buy our cigs from overseas these days? I only pay about $1.80/pack.
Why not tax all the other unhealthy things people consume. Why not put a 600% tax on food preservatives? How about a 600% tax on foods high in fat? Our government does not have the right to impose 1000% taxes! What kind of liberal nonsense is this????
How any conservative could possibly endorse this kind of government abuse is beyond me! This is America. I have a right to smoke if I want to. I don’t need the government to dictate my behavior.
Perhaps if so many in our community weren’t stealing welfare, foodstamps, section 8, and WIC from the government, these taxes wouldn’t be needed. Perhaps if more people in our community actually got an education and a decent job, they would not have to live like leeches on the backs of their neighbors!
Tax, tax, tax… and take… take…. take….that’s all you communist New Yorkers understand.
Who besides hipsters is stupid enough to feed their nicotine habit with cigarettes purchased here in New York? What the political class refuses to acknowledge is that “not smoking” is not the only alternative to paying these taxes.
I don’t need your chochmas. I saw my grandfather who smoked before the government finally forced the manafacturers to put health warnings on cigarettes, die of lung cancer.