Wisconsin government wants to increase state tax on cigarettes
Madison Walton has been smoking for decades. She tried to give up many times using all existing therapies from gums to hypnosis, but it was in vain.
However, when heard about federal tax jump, Madison understood that the day to quit has come for her, since she could simply not afford to buy cigarette anymore.
"Of course I will not quit definitely, I consider buying discount brands at a time, for example once in 10 days," Mrs. Walton said.
She is one of thousands smokers who are trying to cope with a 62-cent jump in the federal tax on tobacco products and namely cigarette that came into force on April 1. However, the bad news is yet to come.
Governor Jim Doyle introduced a bill that contains a new increase in the state cigarette tax. According to the proposed bill the prospective increase would bring the total cigarette tax to $2.52 a pack putting it in the list of the highest cigarette taxes in the US.
The Governor’s spokesman stated that raising prices has been the most effective method in preventing young people from starting smoking. It would also contribute to reducing level of smokers among adults.
According to the statistics, the percentage of adult smokers in the state of Wisconsin fell to 19.6% in 2008 and is expected to drop by 3-4 per cents even more.
Misty Trimly, the Health Department spokesperson confirmed that the drop in the rate of smokers was the result of cooperation between government and health groups because the government has increased the taxes and banned public smoking and the health groups introduced several effective anti-smoking programs.
Meanwhile, people are wondering what the Ways and Means Committee would do when the majority of smokers in the state would give up smoking due to enormous prices and thus stop paying taxes to the state budget.
The recent federal tax hike was the main reason for a sharp slump in the sales at many Wisconsin’s Cigarette Shops, which even reached 50 per cent decline in some places.
Kate Haase, the sore manager of Discount Cigs and Booze in Appleton admitted that cigarette sales decreased by 25% last week, and are expected to fell more. She said that the owner decided to fire up to 5 employees if the sales would keep falling.
Store manager also mentioned that the customers are sick and tired with "never-ending money pit" attitude they represent.
State’s Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said that the federal tax increase has had a rather questionable effect because many people would give up and the remaining part would keep buying cigarettes but the would purchase them via online stores or in neighboring states with lower taxes. Therefore, the government would not be able to generate the intended revenue for health programs.
In accordance with the fiscal reports, the state treasury collected $455 million only in cigarette taxes last year when the cigarette tax was increased by a $1 per pack in comparison with $296 million collected the year before.
In case the bill proposed by the Governor would be approved it would saw additional $300 million be collected by the state in the next couple of years.
The recent jump in the federal cigarette tax and the introduced state tax hike that would increase the price of each pack by 75 cents would help more than 15,000 people to give up smoking, as it was estimated by the Health Department.
Nigel Thompson could become one of these quitters. The Racine resident was shocked by the $6.73 for pack of Marlboros and decided to kick down the habit. He named the price ridiculous and even larger-than-life.
Other smokers were dumped by the news that state government intends to increase cigarette taxes even more after only a year from the last tax increase.
Milwaukee’s Ginger Peterson believes that taxing only cigarettes is unfair since there are also other products that cause illnesses like alcohol and fast food. She said that she has been aware that smoking is a very unhealthy habit but she would not quit since she has been hooked on cigarettes for 40 years.
Another long-time chain smoker Petra Martinez from La Crosse admitted she tried to quit many times but started smoking again after some time. She said she would not give up, instead, she would save some money by cutting the number of cigarettes smoked each day.
