Drop in tobacco use results in less tax income (21.5 percent dip)

Drop in tobacco use results in less tax income

ALASKA CUTS BACK: With a 21.5 percent dip, budgets feel pinch.

FAIRBANKS -- Fewer people in Alaska are smoking, and the decline in tobacco sales is cutting into the amount of tobacco tax money available for some government budgets.

The state Department of Health and Social Services reported in June that the number of adult smokers in Alaska has declined by one-fifth since 1996 to 21.5 percent, or about 27,000 fewer smokers statewide.

As those numbers drop, smaller municipalities are forced to look elsewhere for dependable income.

Alaska has the highest per capita consumption of tobacco in the country and the seventh-highest tax rate on cigarettes at $2 per pack.

http://www.adn.com/news/government/story/519362.html

Why complain, they should have much more money from health care savings??

Who cares as long as we can feel superior to those filthy (tax-paying) smokers? :smoke:

Since 1991, heath care spending in Alaska has escalated from $1.6 billion to $5.3 billion-a 230 percent increase. Per-person spending for Alaskans increased 176 percent, going from $2,884 to $7,970. If these trends continue, health care spending in Alaska could double again by 2013.

http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-6482079/Medical-blues-many-factors-impact.html

Marijuana to make up for the shortfall

This is a fundamental problem with taxing things to discorage them. Government becomes dependent on the tax revenue, which creates a disincentive to pursue the original fundamentally sound public policy.

...or maybe start advertising for big tobacco? LOL

:smoke:

"I Am A Dem Against SCHIP: Let Me Tell You Why"
Tue Oct-16-07 12:40 AM by root

First off, I think everyone should have medical insurance. I don't want to see children OR adults suffering and/or dying needlessly because they can't afford health care.

The problem with SCHIP is this: They are proposing a 61 cent tax on every pack of cigarettes. This is putting the burden of paying for healthcare for everyone right on the shoulders of smokers.

Now, you might say "so what?" or "who cares" without giving it any rational thought. Especially the non-smokers, but even worse, the anti smoking 'smoke nazis' who would just as soon shoot you for smoking as they would look at you.

The bottom line is this: The Bill is fundamentally flawed in its conception. Smokers are already a dwindling base of tax support. With the new anti smoking laws going into effect in several states, more people will be trying to quit, many of them successfully.

As this tax base shrinks, they are either going to want to raise that tax again..... or find a new tax base. Why don't they just rewrite the Bill a little and expand the tax to alcoholic beverages too? It would make more sense, to begin with. It gives you a broader tax base and a more stable tax base."

Read More
http://www.congressunderfire.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=109&topic_id=19&mesg_id=19&page=2


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=2062107#2062149

I no longer smoke cigarettes but do enjoy a pipe at night and use nasal snuff during the day.

Cigarrette taxation is the most completely retarded thing in our entire country right now.