This is just plain rediculous.
I am not a smoker, but here is my rant on raising cigarette taxes to be the "fix" for all the states, local governments, etc.
Why is raising cigarette taxes the ONLY thing congress people think of when the income isn't high enough? Raising cigarette taxes is only going to drive down income from cigarettes because people are going to be from out of state, drive out of state, etc. Also, some people quit when the cigarette habits becomes too expensive! Where is the tax money going to come from now?
The MAJOR complaint is: TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION. Why are you taxing a certain segment of people just because the states congress people cannot budget with what they have? If the state's buget cannot be balanced, it effects EVERYONE in that state -- not JUST the smokers. If revenue is hurting that bad, raise taxes on everything, not just the smokers. You can eaisly get much more income raising sales taxes a quarter percent versus raising cigarette prices some arbitrary value.
Don't get me wrong, I don't approve of smoking, but taxing specific people, for the shortcomes of the state, isn't the appropriate thing to do.
The ONLY time to raise prices on cigarettes (ihmo) is when smokers are causing too much of a burdon on the health care system of the state. Raising the cigarette taxes to support the dying, sickly, smokers is the only way to really put the tax dollars from cigarettes to "good" use.
vash