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Tax raise gives Maryland smokers added incentive to kick the habit
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Jason Carpenski, 20 from Brooklyn, smokes a cigarette while waiting for his food to arrive at The Phoenix in Ellicott City, Md. The state tax on cigarettes is increasing from $1 to $2 per pack Tuesday.
WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Maryland smokers who make New Year’s resolutions to kick the habit will have more incentive to do so.
The state tax on cigarettes is increasing from $1 to $2 per pack Tuesday, bringing the average cost of a pack in Maryland up to $5.58, outpacing Virginia and the District of Columbia by at least $0.94.
Shops bordering the state’s line with the District are bracing for a reduction in sales.
“Sales are going to drop all over Maryland, I’m sure,” said Ragu Nanthan, an employee at TJ Beer Wine and Liquors on New Hampshire Avenue in Takoma Park. The regular price for a pack of Marlboros at the shop ran $4.97 on Friday. On Tuesday, that cost will spike to $6.35, he said.
Nationally, the price per pack of cigarettes is expected to hit $4.63 on Tuesday, said Vince Willmore, vice president for communications for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. In D.C., the average is expected to be $4.64. In Virginia, smokers will pay an average $3.84 per pack.
“I wouldn’t say it’s the death knell, but it would be reduced revenue,” Allan Weisfield, a manager at Talberts, on River Road in Bethesda, said.
Maryland’s 100 percent increase in its per-pack price will rank the state the fourth highest in the nation for its cigarette tax. D.C. is ranked No. 26 and Virginia is ranked No. 47, according to the campaign.
Vincent DeMarco, president of the Maryland Citizens Health Initiative, called the increase “a good public health initiative.” The group waged a three-year fight to increase the tax, which DeMarco predicts will help deter as many as 50,000 children from becoming smokers. Money raised by the tax will go toward expanding health care to as many as 100,000 uninsured state residents, DeMarco said.
Even so, Ayele Tesefaye, an assistant manager of a 7-Eleven on Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring, is expecting a pinch. Customers haven’t complained about the increasing tax yet, but Tesefaye said he suspects that’s because many smokers aren’t fully aware of what’s to come.
“They’re going to complain on January 1 or January 2 when they find out,” he said.
Cigarette taxes
» Maryland: $2
(fourth highest in U.S.)
» District of Columbia: $1
(26th highest in U.S.)
» Virginia: 30 cents
(47th highest in U.S.)
cmabeus@dcexaminer.com
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Jeff, an Independent said:
This is what happens when you let goverment grow wildly out of control.
105 agree | 78 disagree
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antne said:
A serious health crisis in October brought my smoking career to a screeching halt, too bad for the boy wonder and his merry band of thieves in Annapolis. There's an easy $1200 they won't be taking out of my wallet in fiscal 2008.
80 agree | 65 disagree
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Hamster said:
After reading most of the comments below, it has come to me that the problem is not cigarettes or booze. It is the free-loading, lobby-loving politicians who have become the new nobility in this republic. They pay themselves and spend our tax money, they get all the goodies that office gives and they don't have to pay for the common goods the rest of us bust our humps for. They get the best of helath care, but doen't see the need to porvide equally for the rest of us. The live the life of luxury at our expense, and then tell us what we should and should not do in our private lives. They pass laws for the rest of us, but exempt themselves. They transfer money from the most important funds to pay for welfare, and then tell us that we don't have the money to fix the schools and higways. The answer is to vote them out and give some common folk a chance. It was to be a part-time job, make it illegal to spend more than 90 days time in Annapolis. Then pay them part time wages.
102 agree | 59 disagree
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Al Ucard said:
As I have said before, it is easier and cheaper to get drugs on the street than it is to get cigarettes. This is why we can't government involved in legal drugs, they'll just tax them to death the same as booze and tobacco. We were better off before when somokers simply kolled themselves without bothering anybody else. Now we've got kids running drugs, which ultimately cause more health problems and death than either booze or tobacco. If the gov. was serious, they would declare tobacco illegal and shut down all importation and exportation. But they are not serious when all they want it to make a profit off of the cause of the so-called problem. Vote the rascals out, and make them live line the rest of us, which is within our means, without recourse to increasing taxes to increase unnecessary spending. Take their gooies away from the politicians and make them work for minimum wage without all of the goodies they are now getting at the public trough.
112 agree | 69 disagree
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dirk mason said:
maryland has lost it's freakin mind!! i cant believe cigarettes are this expensive...thats crazy!!! and now they are saying that we cant smoke in bars nor in restaurants nor in any building..hell in howard county you cant even smoke in a wide open air parking lot at the hospital...i guess there goes that old saying ...a free country!.not no more folks...its not free anymore!!
71 agree | 74 disagree
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Examiner reader said:
it is all for the children. would marty yo'malley do anything to screw all decent hard working taxpaying marylanders? what does yo'malley's father in law, do at IWIF for $125,000.00 a year besides sleep in his office. nobody else was allowed to interview for that do nothing job. screw the bathtub water drinking, lying yo'malley. shop in delaware.
95 agree | 67 disagree
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The Undertaker said:
I don't know why my remarks about setting up a black market were removed. Face the fact that just as the war on drugs hasn't worked a war on tobacco isn't going to work any better. The more you raise prices and more you will encourage a black market. 6 months and a $1000 fine are going to scare people? 20yrs and a $25,000 fine doesn't stop crack dealing. Grow up and treat other people like grown ups. Who the hell does this Demarco fellow think that he is? My mother?
98 agree | 74 disagree
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Marlowe said: said:
so 12:51 are you saying that if i did still smoke, and i went to somewhere like delaware to see my in-laws, and while there i bought a carton of cigarettes, i would have to surrender them before entering Maryland? Or i would be in violation...with all of the crime in maryland, one would think that they would focus their law enforcement efforts elsewhere.
85 agree | 66 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
If you import more than two packs of untaxed cigarettes into Maryland it will be a $1000.00 fine or 6 month jail time. I don't smoke but my wife does and I hate it. I wish they would ban smoking everywere but your house. Plus I hate going places and can't breath because of the smoke. So maybe this tax will stop some from smoking and save a life or two.
111 agree | 83 disagree
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Marlowe said: said:
I stopped smoking a couple of years ago, but if i did still smoke i think i would make it a point to either quit, or buy my cigarettes else where..... Everythings going up, instead of our paychecks....amazing..
84 agree | 75 disagree
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The Undertaker said:
I'm going to import cheap cigarettes and sell them on street corners around town. If anyone tries to take over my corner I will shoot him in the back of the head.
108 agree | 85 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
6:14 Must be nice to be so perfect and free of all of those bad habits that seem to affect only the less superior amongst us. Maybe we should tax arrogant and condescending people such as yourself? Probably be a good revenue source. (By the way, I don't smoke so the tax will not affect me.)
74 agree | 80 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
my question is this.this bright idea that raising ciggarette taxes a dollar will help pay for about 100,000 uninsured residents right?I't sounds to me like those uninsured residents could be the thousands of illegal immigrants you now see everywhere you look.I heard a while back that any illegal alien could be entitled to free health care.As we all know there is nothing for free in this world.All i sense is that either the money will be pocketed or it will be used as a way of "let's help everybody else in the world besides our own citizens"I lived in md. all my life and had to work for everything i have.well all I can say is that if you want to hit smokers with this tax don't stop there.Let's hit up the alcohol tax too!I can't recall ever getting into a car crash while smoking a cigarette.
153 agree | 74 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
I think they should have raised the tax to $30.00 a pack.
91 agree | 91 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Why don't they go after the alcohol. If you don't want to be around smokes then you can walk out but when there is drunk drivers on the road then that chose has been taken away and for very many meant death. I don't need someone to watch out for my health I can do that just fine I know the risks. Our goverment has become more like a russian government telling me what i can do when i can do it and how to do it. this is not the land of the free anymore every thing is dictated. I dont like what our maryland and federal government has become all the think of is money. If they want people to stop smoking give them some reason not just because they can't afford to smoke. Give them the tools (patches,pills,etc.) for free paid for by our taxes on smokes, and then say hey you kick the habit so here have a tax credit for doing so, give back some of that tax money they we have given for so many years. What willl the government do if everyone does stop smoking where will they get their money f
93 agree | 77 disagree
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Smokers said:
Smokers=Losers
96 agree | 84 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
I look at it this way as a smoker I smoke its my body.So stay out of my business. If I die from it, its my own fault, and I pay for my own health care, and even if I did not smoke you cant count on the USA to take care of your health care. I also expect cigarette sales in VA & DC to climb. More taxes for VA&DC less for MD. Black market sales of cigarettes willn climb!! Even less taxes for MD.
107 agree | 98 disagree
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BostonRay said:
Let's see here. New Jersey raised their tax on cigarettes by a buck and expected a $ 30 million windfall - instead they got a $27 million shortfall and 7 dead from turf wars. Thats a projected $57 million difference that has been a severe impact on their budget. Smokers, who bother no one, are not stupid. It is an illegal tax placed upon those who cannot fight back. We hit you in economic terms and Maryland will soon learn this lesson. Of course politicians never admit they are stupid. O'Malley, the drunk, will not fare the same. In Baltimore the drug dealers are already buying up smokes to sell on the black market-it has a higher profit level than heroin. How stupid are anti-smokers? You will see the ways.
103 agree | 80 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
Maryland legislators need to be kicked out. Dont think for a second that the money from this tax will be used for heathcare. Thats like the lottery was for the schools and roads, and they never have money for either!
95 agree | 81 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
why would anyone want smokers to quit when the tax collected should go to health coverage for uninsured residents of the state. this doesn't make any sense at all. then again, the state of Maryland does things like this all the time. I shouldn't be surprised at all.
92 agree | 94 disagree
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Examiner Reader said:
How many of those uninsured state residents will be smokers? They can't afford to pay for medical coverage, but I bet they will find a way to come up with $180.00 a month to smoke. And thats just for one pack a day at six bucks.
102 agree | 92 disagree
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Bob said:
It's really unfortunate that a few states keep their taxes so low, and encourage more smoking because of it. Virginia may be a tobacco state, but it should be a little more considerate of the health consequences of smoking to it's citizens. And the amount of tax that Virginia takes in doesn't come close to paying for the extra health care costs of smoking.
110 agree | 85 disagree
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