I don't smoke. Never have, though God knows why. Everyone in my family did (It killed 2, and caused 2 to have strokes out of 5... and I'm the 5th) and serving in the Army didn't help.
But I'm a student of both politics and human nature. I also understand what freedom means, and what tyranny means... like the tyranny that's resulted in the current moronic laws in place regarding smoking in businesses. (A supporter of free market solutions, ultimately, these businesses would have voluntarily became smoke free because of the dollars and cents aspect of what the traffic would bear will demand it)
I, for example, wouldn't go into smoking establishments. Much like people working there didn't have to.
These things consist of what's commonly known as "choices."
When the legislature, in the words of failed congressional candidate State Senator Craig Pridemore, began to "balance the budgets on the backs of the poor and the powerless" by increasing "sin" taxes.... like cigarette taxes, it became clear that those pushing these vampire solutions had no clue... no idea... what would happen.
Well, here's what happened... and it should have been obvious to a blind dog in a second:
New cigarette tax driving more smokers to black market
NWCN.com
Posted on October 20, 2010 at 10:06 PM
Updated yesterday at 10:17 PM
SEATTLE -- Tax hikes are never popular. However, Washington state is relying on a boost in the cigarette tax to help it out of its budget crisis.
A KING 5 Investigation reveals how lawbreakers are undermining that effort, committing their crime on your dime.
The state’s cigarette tax rose by $1 in May, leaving a taste for many smokers that’s as bitter as the cheapest pack of smokes.
With state taxes now totaling more than $3 per pack, would smokers cheat the tax man if they could?
“Yeah, if I knew of a place I’d be there,” said John King after he spent $80 on a carton of cigs at Tobacco Lane in Shoreline.
“I'm just trying to get my cigarettes for as cheap as I can," said Dallas Provencal, another customer.
That's what's fueling a growing black market, documented in surveillance video recorded by the KING 5 Investigators.
Our cameras rolled as people moved cartons of contraband cigarettes in Seattle’s International District. In one scene, two women can be seen lifting a large garbage bag into a car trunk. They accidentally allowed a box of bootleg cigarettes to fall out of the bag where it could be clearly seen on camera.
The KING 5 Investigators also recorded them selling illegal cigarettes for cash to a steady stream of customers.
Black market cigarettes are for sale in other places, too. Provencal bought some from a man selling them out of a backpack.
"I actually bought them at a Seahawks game,” he said. “I saw them there selling them for $5 a pack. I thought, ‘Hey, $5 a pack. You can't beat that.’"
With our hidden camera, we followed a man who bought a carton of cigarettes from a woman selling at 12th Avenue South and South Jackson Street in Seattle. The man paid $50 cash for a carton of Marlboros. That’s $30 less than store prices.The packaging reveals that the cigarettes are from Vietnam. They're actual Marlboros that sell for much lower prices overseas.
Owners of legitimate tobacco stores can't compete with the black market.
"It's growing. Nobody pays the taxes,” said Tobacco Lane owner Imran Janoo, whose Shoreline store is already suffering in the bad economy and from a massive street construction project outside his front door.
The illegal trade hurts taxpayers in Washington, too. The Vietnamese smokes have no state tax stamp on the bottom. The stamp is the proof on each pack of cigarettes that the $3 tax has been paid.
The bootleg cigarette market isn't new. However, there's evidence it's inhaling millions more tax dollars each month.
The KING 5 Investigators came up with an estimate by tracking the sale of tax stamps.In the months before May, prior to the new tax, the state sold an average $44 million worth of cigarette stamps. That's 44 million tax dollars generated each month. In the months since the tax, that average has dropped to about $34 million. That means 10 million fewer tax dollars are being collected per month.
That would be great if it meant people like Dallas Povencal were quitting.
“Me and my wife just talked about it,” he said. “It would save us $400 a month.”
Instead of quitting, more smokers are likely cheating.
Yup. Sometimes, like in Obamacare, the porkulus and jacking up the cigarette tax, government gets too damned smart by half.
This is one of those times... only THIS time, it's costing us $100 million a year.
Idiots.
.
2 comments:
won't it be 120 million per year? 12 months x 10 million in lost revenue?
Yeah... i was just allowing a little lee-way downward to make sure of the accuracy. Some folks will be ending their smoking career, so to speak, because of these increased costs anyway.
Not everyone can get black market cigs.
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