The two Democratic state lawmakers have filed proposals to increase state tobacco taxes, one by 32.5 cents per package and one by about $1 per pack, in order to fill up a $400 million gap in the state General Fund following fiscal year.

Republican Patricia Todd, D-Birmingham, filled a bill that would increase the state tobacco tax from 42.5 cents to 75 cents per package, which would increase sharply an expected $75 million a year for the General Fund. However some Republicans declared that they are not sure that the Legislature would increase tobacco taxes in the 2012 session, which is planned for February, 7. “I suppose that there is a 60% chance that the scanty budget prospects for fiscal 2013 will prompt legislators to pass the advised cigarette tax increase in order to avoid possible cuts in state services,” Mrs. Todd said.

Republican, Joe Hubbard, D-Montgomery, filled a bill to increase tobacco tax by $1 per package, which would increase a supposed $230 million a year. All the money accumulated due to Hubbard’s bill would be directed to the state Medicaid agency, which helps lower-income and disabled people. Hubbard declared that increasing tobacco taxes would be the only true way to help Medicaid, as apart of its spending went to fight tobacco related diseases. David Sutton, a representative in Richmond, Va., for the leading cigarette producer Philip Morris USA, declared it would be wrong to complete a revenue shortfall by taxing a minority of tax bearers. According to recent estimates, about 20.6 % of adults smoked cigarettes in 2009. Sutton also added that increasing Alabama’s tobacco tax would incite smokers to cross state borders to purchase cigarettes, affecting sales at local convenience stores and other shops in Alabama.

Alabama’s present state tobacco tax of 42.5 cents per packaging was the fifth-lowest among 50 states; the average state tax was of $1.29 per pack. Todd’s advised increase would prompt the state cigarette tax in Alabama to 75 cents per pack, which on November, would have been the 15 lowest among 50 states, according to a survey. It would be higher than in Mississippi, which introduced a tax of 68 cents per pack.

Hubbard’s advised growth would prompt the state tobacco tax in Alabama to $1.425 per package, which on November would have been the 23rd highest state cigarette tax. “I think that lawmakers won’t increase taxes and would continue spending for several state agencies so that General Fund spending fitted profits in 2013,” Senator Jabo Waggoner, R-Vestavia Hills, said in an interview. “They will simply undertake a few radical cuts, that is the way I think we will resolve it,” Waggoner said.

By Clark Moore, Staff Writer Copyright © 2011 Hot-Cigs.com All rights reserved.