Posted on Mon, Mar. 30, 2009
Smokers fume over higher taxes on cigarettes
By ERIC ADLER
The Kansas City Star Compared with Julie Gingers more pressing problem, the tax hike on her Camels hardly seems that big.Still, it stinks, said Ginger, a 47-year-old single mom who, after 26 years working for a finance company, will be laid off next week.
On Wednesday, the federal excise tax on every pack of cigarettes will jump from 39 cents to $1.01. That will bring the price of a pack of Marlboros to around $5 in Missouri and even more in Kansas, which has a 62-cent higher state tax.
Ginger began smoking 15 years ago amid a divorce. Maybe the higher lug doesnt seem like much, she said Monday, taking a drag while on a work break in front of Discount Smoke Shop in Independence. But it adds up.
Im not happy about it, she and other smokers fume.
They are no happier in places with already high state taxes, such as New York, where a pack goes now for around $10 50 cents for a single smoke.
Cigars, chewing tobacco and pipe tobacco also will see large federal tax increases.
In the last two months, most major tobacco companies, including R.J. Reynolds and the Altria Group, the owner of Philip Morris USA, already have heaped hefty increases onto the prices of their products making it likely that smokers already have inhaled their biggest sticker shock.
We raised our prices in direct response to the federal excise tax increase, said Bill Phelps, a spokesman for Altria.
The tax revenue, about $32.8 billion over the next 4 1/2 years, will be used to expand the federally funded State Childrens Health Insurance Program. The program gives money to states to provide coverage to children from families too well-off to receive Medicaid, but too poor to afford private insurance.
Smoking has declined steadily in the United States, from about 25 percent of the adult population a decade ago to 20 percent today.
It will save lives, Cam Scott of the American Cancer Society in Missouri and Kansas said of the higher taxes. The society estimates that for every 10 percent increase in the price of cigarettes, youth smoking decreases 7 percent and overall smoking decreases 4 percent.
We know that this tax will prevent nearly 2 million kids from becoming smokers in the United States. One million people will quit, Scott said.
Some smokers Monday were not interested in quitting.
I never even heard of this tax till two days ago! complained Harry Chance, 66, a smoker for 50 years.
So he and his brothers began stockpiling roll-your-own cans of tobacco, the price of which is anticipated to rise more than 300 percent, from about $13 a pound at the smoke shop to nearly $40 after a $26-per-pound tax soon is added.
I got about 10 or 15 (cans) in the freezer, Chance said.
Customers have been hoarding for weeks, said smoke shop district manager Jamie Lavanga, stocking up like its a big snowstorm and theyre going to be snowed in for a year.
One 65-year-old man, a smoker since age 10, echoed a familiar complaint: persecution.
I dont drink. I dont run around. I dont use drugs. Smoking relaxes me, he said, insisting that the nicotine in his blood probably prolonged his life by killing bacteria.
Then he offered dubious claim No. 2: My lungs are probably clearer than yours.
Karla Boss, 34, of Grain Valley, said the tax comes at the worst time. Her husband, Ron, 37, recently was laid off from his job at a local Ford dealership.
People are stressed out, Boss said. Theyre wondering, How am I going to pay the mortgage? How am I going to feed the kids? They want to light up a cigarette.
Boss and her husband tried to see whether they could quit all day Sunday. They began at 8 a.m.
We were smoking again at noon, she said.
Im not even a smoker, and I think its terrible, Ray Wetstone, 78, said of the tax. He entered the shop with his friend Sarah.
Wetstone, like many others, was convinced that the money probably wont go to help children: Ninety percent will just go to overhead. Ten percent will to go the people who need it.
Theyve got us everywhere, Sarah chimed in. No smoking at work anymore. No smoking in restaurants or bars.
But Danny Harness, 67, a retired General Motors worker, said he didnt mind paying extra for his Winstons.
I think its a good deal, he said. It will stop a lot of young people from ever starting smoking.
Cashier Misty Winfrey, 31, at the Valero gas station and convenience store at 1704 Grand Blvd., already has noticed that customers arent buying as many cigarettes as before. Some are sharing packs or buying cheaper brands.
Lavanga agrees, but doesnt think it will last.
People say, Because of this Im going to quit. They dont. They come back.
To reach Eric Adler, call 816-234-4431 or send e-mail to [email protected].
