Florida Cigarette Sales Fall - govt hires 7 people to track down internet sales

Florida Cigarette Sales Fall
State tax that hit this summer has hurt convenience stores that rely on tobacco profits.


Just two months since a $1 tax was tacked onto cigarette packs in Florida on July 1, cigarette sales have plummeted and smokers are driving into neighboring states to avoid the extra expense, Florida Today reported.

According to the latest figures from the Department of Business and Professional Regulation, cigarette pack sales plunged by 28% from July 2008 to July 2009 or 76.8 million packs sold this year compared to 106.6 million packs a year ago. And, that was before the tax increase began wreaking havoc on sales.

The state's convenience stores, where most cigarettes are sold, and where tobacco makes up 34% of non-gasoline sales, are already feeling the affects of the tax, Jim Smith, head of the Florida Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association told Florida Today.

Some owners are working longer hours behind the counter and cutting employee shifts to make ends meet, and layoffs are inevitable.

"Indeed, my members in the northern part of the state have seen reduced sales of 30%," Smith said. "You are going to see layoffs, I think that's going to come. Sooner or later, something's got to give."

....

To make sure that Florida actually acquires that revenue, lawmakers for the first time ordered regulators to begin tracking down Internet tobacco sales. Department of Business and Professional Regulation press secretary Alexis Antonacci Lambert said administrators are hiring seven people to begin the hunt.

http://www.csdecisions.com/news/7817/florida-cigarette-sales-fall.html

Price goes up, sales go down, people go elsewhere to buy and the revenue shrinks. Here's an idea, make a more fair tax and people will come to your state to buy them and you will end up with even more revenue.

and it seems they haven't learned from the failed drug war.

i got out of the nicotine game a year ago. i don't miss all of the BS hoops i had to jump through to get them.

it was already costing me $4 a day at that point. no thanks.

tobacco tax is one in reality.

i remember being hooked to that shit, and calling a tobacco tax "voluntary" is less than honest.

anyone who smokes and doesn't want to, look up Allen Carr. his book made it simple for me to stop.

seems, according to local stores here, more people are doing it.

are growing their own tobacco.

that raising the cigarette taxes might just cause more people to quit?

:silly:

Like cooking the chickens, and still going to the coop, expecting eggs to magically appear:rofl:

If you want people to quit you make it illegal.
If you want to slap a tax on a minority nobody will complain about you tax tobacco.

If taxes are used to reduce an event then why don't we have a homicide tax? Oh thats right we made it illegal.

The goal of raising the cig tax was more $$$$$ except looks like they pushed it too far.

up next.

. . . was to ban smoking in public places. Has it not occurred to them that perhaps we're making progress and fewer people are actually smoking?

You don't suppose this will be the wake-up call that finally makes them legalize weed, do you--a desperation for tax dollars? Seems to me that would more than compensate.

gee, selective much? Some freedom. :eyes:

I simply stated that I thought the ban on public smoking was brilliant, and that government would soon change its tune about legalization of other drugs if they suddenly find themselves hurting from a loss of tobacco tax income. There is no logic behind legalizing some drugs over others, and these are people motivated by dollar signs above all. It seems only logical that greed is ultimately what's going to make legislators compromise their screwed-up biases.

You can't legislate morality, and prohibition was already proven a failure.

The gist of this is that they seem so mystified about the etiology of the drop-off in revenue. Duh. . . thinking is hard, I guess. :eyes:

"Has it not occurred to them that perhaps we're making progress and fewer people are actually smoking? "

This was the line that seemed out of place.

In any case, I do agree with you entirely about the legislation of morality. It doesn't work. So let's just put this behind us and spark one up. :smoke: :toast:

Oh, and why the snark? All I did was ask you a question. :shrug:

I didn't see why the making progress/fewer people smoking would be taken as a negative, unless you were the kind of rabid smoker who used to light up in the no smoking section and tell you not to have a coronary when you pointed out they were sitting right next to the sign (as they blew smoke in your face). As someone who's allergic and extremely bothered by smoke, the ban has enabled me to actually get out and do a lot of things I used to have to avoid, so it was a big deal to me.

Maybe I posted when I was too tired; tact is not necessarily my strong suit in general, either. Not to worry, we're good. :)

Assume at least $15 per hour plus admin and benefit costs. Plus lawyers when everyone they catch fights them in court. Figure at least 300,000 per year. So they have to catch at least 300,000 packs a year to break even. LOL... good luck with that. Saving the economy one pack at a time? I guess they want all that convenience store money to go to lotto tix.

You cant base a health program (especially one for children) on a regressive tax that is so high it destroys the user base you're depending on for the funding.

they will "find a way" to avoid being picked on.. That's why sin-taxes fail in the end..

Prohibition should have sent a strong message.. prohibit something, or unfairly over-tax it, and people will find a "work-around".

if "all" sins were treated equally, people might not rebel as much..

tax liquor/beer/wine/tobacco/"unnecessary foods" at the same percentage..that's the ticket:)

If all the "unnecessaries" were taxed, the actual tax percentage could even be lower:)

some Floridians to quit smoking...

That is a good thing.


Tikki

You'd expect sales to go down anyway, and indeed most of the cited drop occurred before the tax increase.

But then throw another tax on top, and what do you expect? No jobs, no money, low sales. People are leaving FL anyway.

This should be a lesson to us all about regressive taxes in hard times. We are not going to meet our needs by taxing poorer folks. Tax soda, and you'll get less soda sales. I'm just amazed every time I see these "Democratic" administration come up with plans to tax the stuff that lower income people spend a much higher proportion of their income on. What do they think is going to happen?

We're gonna have to get a grip and implement progressive taxation, but the tax increases are going to have to start way below incomes of 250K a year!

I remember in the early 90's in Toronto spending $6.00 Canadian for a pack of smokes. Ontario had recently raised its taxes dramatically. It backfired on the Government of Ontario because the overwhelming majority of the population lives within an hour of the US border and could just go to Niagara or Detroit and buy them on the US side for half or less than they were spending at home. If I am not mistaken, they lowered the taxes not long after implementing them because of this.

I live in SW Fl so it is a bit of a drive to go to another state to buy smokes.

Buying by the pack at my local convenience store runs better than $5.25/pack.

Buying by the carton is about $4.30/pack.

for tubes. Thinking of going to a pipe to avoid that expense. Also brew my own beer and make wine at home. I would make by own liqueur but that would be illegal without a BATF license. }(

Not really a tax protest on my part but for economic and self sufficiency purposes.

to give them up for good. :scared:

The Indian reservation near where I live has a booming business selling non state taxed cigarettes.

Now they can put a 400% tax increase on donuts and hire 7 more creeps to find out why Floridians still have fat asses !

Fuck em !