The cigarette tax.

[moneysense]

The cigarette tax will go into effect April 1st, and with an increase of over a dollar a pack, I have the feeling that there will be a lot of people that will quit smoking because they wont be able to afford paying $10 or more per carton of cigarettes.

Where will this lead in the long run? I am thinking that this tax will have a domino effect, first it will effect the tobacco growers when not as much tobacco will need to be bought in order to make cigarettes that people wont be able to afford.

Then it will effect the tobacco companies, because demand will go down, therefore supply will be up and with supplies up, less workers will be needed, and thus layoffs in the tobacco industry.

I, for one, dont think that the lawmakers that pass these tax bills think things through before passing them. Common sense dictates that if you cant afford to pay your mortgages and bills and buy groceries, that cigarettes will be one thing that we will learn to do without as they are not a necessity.

Because we will be doing without them, havent these lawmakers thought the ramifications of this big increase in cigarette tax through?

What we dont need right now, is anything that will in any way, in the future, cause job losses and this tax may be see the demise, in the long run, of a cigarette company or two.

Phillip Morris has already implemented the tax on their cigarettes.

We pay $53 for two cartons of cigarettes a week right now, and with this dollar a pack tax, that will put the two cartons at $63 or better a week. A price that I am not willing to pay. So quitting is going to be my objective in the next several weeks.

By the way, this $53 we pay right now is out of state, in our state those same two cartons right now would cost about $68 making the purchase cost after the tax raise go to right around $80.

[moneysaver]

Do you know what really gets me? The last time they raised cig taxes around me was to help build a stadium for the ball teams. After the stadium was build, you couldn't even smoke in it anymore. What's up with that?