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Thread: Cigarette tax revenue plunges as smokers buy outside New York

  1. #1

    Cigarette tax revenue plunges as smokers buy outside New York

    schadenfreude

    Albany has really blown it — tax revenues from cigarettes are up in smoke.

    New York state cigarette tax collections have plunged by about $400 million over the past five years, according to figures and estimates from the office of New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

    And New York has also lost $1.3 billion in uncollected state cigarette taxes each year from alternative sales, according to a separate study.

    The state is taxing far fewer packs, as smokers evade taxed packs, shop across state lines or buy smokes from Native American merchants to avoid punitive NY taxes. A typical pack in New York costs $10.60 or more, including the nation’s highest state excise tax, $4.35.

    In Gotham, smokers are slapped with an extra $1.50 per pack on top of the state tax. (On top of that, there’s federal excise tax of $1.01, and an 8 percent sales tax of almost 80 cents, using our example.)

    Not surprisingly, say experts, sales of taxed cigs in New York are off by 54 percent in the past decade, which is also cutting into the profits of local store owners peddling smokes. In that same period, about 19 percent of New Yorkers stopped smoking, a pace well below the huge sales dip.

    “The Germans call it ‘schadenfreude’ when you take pleasure from another person’s misfortune,” noted Dan Mitchell, a tax expert at the Washington DC-based Cato Institute, commenting on the New York smoking tax fiasco.

    “Normally, I would think people who feel this way have a character flaw.

    “But not in this case,” he added. “I confess that I get a certain joy from this story because politicians are being punished for their greed. I like the fact that they have less money to waste.”
    http://nypost.com/2015/12/27/cigaret...-york/?ref=yfp
    Quote Originally Posted by Ron Paul View Post
    The intellectual battle for liberty can appear to be a lonely one at times. However, the numbers are not as important as the principles that we hold. Leonard Read always taught that "it's not a numbers game, but an ideological game." That's why it's important to continue to provide a principled philosophy as to what the role of government ought to be, despite the numbers that stare us in the face.
    Quote Originally Posted by Origanalist View Post
    This intellectually stimulating conversation is the reason I keep coming here.



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  3. #2
    And New York has also lost $1.3 billion in uncollected state cigarette taxes each year from alternative sales, according to a separate study.
    "Lost", as if they owned that money in the first place.
    Quote Originally Posted by Sister Miriam Godwinson View Post
    We Must Dissent.

  4. #3

  5. #4
    I just buy my cigs from the Indians. On the reservation, cigs were like $2.00 a pack. At the gas station, $12.00 a pack. Well, that was back when I still smoked.

    What NY actually did was make it so the Indians couldn't sell national brands, a few years ago. They some how found a loophole where they could tax the Indians. So the only thing the Indians could now sell are their own brand. Which taste like garbage.

    Now I vape. Whatever, call me a loser but I'm saving a lot of money. When I was buying cigs and paying the state, I was spending about $300/month on cigs. When I was paying the Indians, I was spending about $40/month. Now with vaping, I'm spending about $80/year.

  6. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by TheNewYorker View Post
    I just buy my cigs from the Indians. On the reservation, cigs were like $2.00 a pack. At the gas station, $12.00 a pack. Well, that was back when I still smoked.

    What NY actually did was make it so the Indians couldn't sell national brands, a few years ago. They some how found a loophole where they could tax the Indians. So the only thing the Indians could now sell are their own brand. Which taste like garbage.

    Now I vape. Whatever, call me a loser but I'm saving a lot of money. When I was buying cigs and paying the state, I was spending about $300/month on cigs. When I was paying the Indians, I was spending about $40/month. Now with vaping, I'm spending about $80/year.
    When we go to Buffalo, my husbands family puts in a cigarette order. The back of my minivan is usually packed with smokes. O_o
    Quote Originally Posted by Ron Paul View Post
    The intellectual battle for liberty can appear to be a lonely one at times. However, the numbers are not as important as the principles that we hold. Leonard Read always taught that "it's not a numbers game, but an ideological game." That's why it's important to continue to provide a principled philosophy as to what the role of government ought to be, despite the numbers that stare us in the face.
    Quote Originally Posted by Origanalist View Post
    This intellectually stimulating conversation is the reason I keep coming here.

  7. #6
    You can make a law against the free market but it won't stop people. Might slow them a bit...
    "I am a bird"

  8. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by luctor-et-emergo View Post
    You can make a law against the free market but it won't stop people. Might slow them a bit...
    How much of the tobacco hysteria has made it to your side of the pond?

  9. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by tod evans View Post
    How much of the tobacco hysteria has made it to your side of the pond?
    Not a whole lot so far, apart from mandatory health warnings and yearly increasing prices. I do believe the EU is now going to mandate that a certain percentage of a package is devoted to health warnings. Not entirely sure.


    We had the same thing that happened here happen with alcohol taxes. I'd say these taxes are successful in what they were stated to do; lower consumption. The government however doesn't care about such petty things as intent. They're just whining about lower revenues.

    Same with traffic tickets. They say these are to make the roads safer. Then people get less fines over a year, government gets less revenue, you'd say; less tickets = safer roads... But no, the tickets have been going up 15% annually over the past couple of years. I think they've at least doubled in the past 10 years. Number of tickets has been going down the same time. In fact, they admit they have to raise the fines because they ALREADY SPENT THE MONEY. So yeah.

    But no tobacco hysteria here.
    "I am a bird"



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  11. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by luctor-et-emergo View Post
    Not a whole lot so far, apart from mandatory health warnings and yearly increasing prices. I do believe the EU is now going to mandate that a certain percentage of a package is devoted to health warnings. Not entirely sure.


    We had the same thing that happened here happen with alcohol taxes. I'd say these taxes are successful in what they were stated to do; lower consumption. The government however doesn't care about such petty things as intent. They're just whining about lower revenues.

    Same with traffic tickets. They say these are to make the roads safer. Then people get less fines over a year, government gets less revenue, you'd say; less tickets = safer roads... But no, the tickets have been going up 15% annually over the past couple of years. I think they've at least doubled in the past 10 years. Number of tickets has been going down the same time. In fact, they admit they have to raise the fines because they ALREADY SPENT THE MONEY. So yeah.

    But no tobacco hysteria here.
    I'm for bludgeoning the whiners over here about the head and shoulders until they're unable to complain.....

  12. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by TheNewYorker View Post
    I just buy my cigs from the Indians. On the reservation, cigs were like $2.00 a pack. At the gas station, $12.00 a pack. Well, that was back when I still smoked.

    What NY actually did was make it so the Indians couldn't sell national brands, a few years ago. They some how found a loophole where they could tax the Indians. So the only thing the Indians could now sell are their own brand. Which taste like garbage.

    Now I vape. Whatever, call me a loser but I'm saving a lot of money. When I was buying cigs and paying the state, I was spending about $300/month on cigs. When I was paying the Indians, I was spending about $40/month. Now with vaping, I'm spending about $80/year.
    Yeah, you and me both. Ain't it great?
    ================
    Open Borders: A Libertarian Reappraisal or why only dumbasses and cultural marxists are for it.

    Cultural Marxism: The Corruption of America

    The Property Basis of Rights

  13. #11
    Ironically Eric Garner was strangled to death after resisting arrest for selling "illegal" cigarettes in New York.
    9/11 Thermate experiments

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    "It can be a challenge to follow the pronouncements of President Trump, as he often seems to change his position on any number of items from week to week, or from day to day, or even from minute to minute." -- Ron Paul
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    The only way I see Trump as likely to affect any real change would be through martial law, and that has zero chances of success without strong buy-in by the JCS at the very minimum.

  14. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Suzanimal View Post
    When we go to Buffalo, my husbands family puts in a cigarette order. The back of my minivan is usually packed with smokes. O_o
    Reported! Terrorizer! Tax Fraud!

    (kidding...)
    1776 > 1984

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    Honest Money System , which frees the ordinary man from the clutches of the money manipulators, is the single largest contributing factor to the World's current Economic Crisis.

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    Belief, Money, and Violence are the three ways all people are controlled

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  15. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by jmdrake View Post
    Ironically Eric Garner was strangled to death after resisting arrest for selling "illegal" cigarettes in New York.
    War on loosies.



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