Despite the $1 increase in the state tax on a pack of cigarettes
Despite the $1 increase in the state tax on a pack of cigarettes that takes effect Wednesday, smokers showed no apparent surge Tuesday to stockpile cigarettes, although some merchants reported sales rose somewhat.
“There’s not a massive rush, but when we usually might have sold two or three cartons, we sold 10 this morning,” said Don Beauregard, manager in training at the Circle K at 4015 S. West Shore Blvd.
Another Circle K, at 330 Apollo Beach Blvd. in Apollo Beach, reported that sales were not excessive today, while the CVS Pharmacy at 1904 Lumsden Road in Brandon reported no signs of an increase in sales, CVS shift supervisor Susan Ligman said.
“Some people are doubling up on what they typically purchase, but sales are at about the same pace as usual,” Tiffani Washington, spokeswoman for Walgreens, said about activity at the store at Hillsborough Avenue and Memorial Highway.
Florida’s 34 cents a pack cigarette tax will increase to $1.34 under the 2009 “Protecting Florida’s Health Act,” which the Legislature passed to help bolster state revenues that sagged during the recession. Backers of the new law said it would raise more than $900 million annually for health care in addition to encouraging smokers to break their habit.
Florida’s cigarette tax increase could put the price of a pack of cigarettes beyond $5, or more than 25 cents a cigarette, depending on where they are purchased.
At Diamond D Food Store in North Lakeland, a pack of Benson & Hedges cost $4.80 at the start of the year. After the federal tax hike in April, it went up to $6.20. Now, with the new state tax increase, it will cost $7.20.
Even with the tax increase, state taxes on cigarettes in Florida rank 22nd nationwide, the Washington-based group Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids reported.
Rhode Island ranks first with a $3.46 per pack tax, while South Carolina ranks the lowest with a 7 cent tax.
Florida has no local taxes on cigarettes, but cities in other states do, including New York City, which adds a $1.50 tax per pack to a $2.75 per pack state tax, for a total of $4.25 a pack.
Those combined tax rates do not include the federal cigarette tax of $1.01 per pack.
Judith Ream of Sumter County goes to Hernando County to buy cigarettes because the sales tax is lower. She bought three cartons of Marlboro Mediums on sale today in anticipation of the state tax increase.
Ream, a pack-and-a-half-a-day smoker, is upset about the federal and state tax increases on tobacco, which together add $20 to a carton of cigarettes.
“If they need revenue, go to the beer, wine and whiskey,” she said. “You can’t smoke a cigarette, go down the road and kill a car of teenagers at 3 in the morning.”
The increased taxes won’t make smokers quit, said Ream, 61, who started smoking at 19. If lawmakers really wanted smokers to quit, she said, they would dispense free lozenges and patches that help people kick the habit.
The federal tax that went into effect in April cut business by 35 percent to 40 percent, said John DiTomo, owner of JD’s Place tobacco shop in Lakeland. He expects the state tax to be equally devastating, predicting a 20 percent loss to his business.
“If people have to make a choice between a carton of cigarettes and a pound of hamburger, they’re going to go for the hamburger.”
Source: 2.tbo
