State Lawmakers Take On Tobacco Lobbyists Over Tax Increases January 24, 2002
News Summary
With many U.S. states considering an increase in the cigarette tax to address budget shortfalls, lawmakers are gearing up for a tough fight with tobacco-industry lobbyists, Reuters reported Jan. 23.Currently, 16 states have plans to increase taxes on a pack of cigarettes. Just last week, New York approved a 39-cent increase in its cigarette tax, bringing the total tax to $1.50 per pack, the highest in the country.
In early January, Nebraska state Sen. Bob Wickersham introduced two bills that would bring an additional $18 million to the state through increases in cigarette and alcohol taxes. "Any time revenues are in a pinch, you're going to find what many people characterize as 'sin taxes' examined as a source of revenue," he said.
Cigarette manufacturers are fighting the cigarette tax increases, arguing that smokers shouldn't be singled out to bear the budget burden. "It's an unfair and selective tax burden on lower- and moderate-income brackets," said John Singleton, a spokesman for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.
Singleton added that states and the federal government have already received $88 billion between 1999 and 2001 from tobacco companies in the form of taxes and payments from the national tobacco settlement.
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