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Today's Poll!Tobacco tax tour ends with Capitol rally
Saturday, October 13, 2012
A yellow school bus carrying signs supporting “Proposition B,” the tobacco tax increase voters will see on next month’s election ballot, ended its campaign travel around Missouri with a Friday afternoon rally at the Capitol.
“Missouri has the lowest tobacco tax in the country, at 17 cents per pack (of cigarettes),” said Misty Snodgrass, the American Cancer Society’s Legislative/Government Affairs director in Missouri, “and this directly relates to our poor health outcomes and high smoking rates — especially among youth.”
The proposed new law, placed on the ballot by an initiative petition campaign, would raise taxes by 25 percent “of the manufacturer’s invoice price” for “roll-your-own” tobacco, and 15 percent on all other tobacco products except cigarettes, where the increase would be 73 cents a pack, to 90.
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Comments
CVPI 7 months ago
Tobacco taxes have more then doubled in the past decade, when is enough? Why not tax alcohol products for a change since there are more deaths per year related to that.
tonto_goldberg 7 months ago
Where do you get such erroneous information?
Missouri has had the same cigarette tax rate since at least 1995, at 17 cents per pack. We have the lowest cigarette tax rate in the whole USA. The tax on other tobacco products has not changed since 1993. Missouri cigarette and other tobacco tax revenues have been virtually flat the past ten years.
linoge 7 months ago
The assertion that there are more alcohol related deaths per year than tobacco is probably incorrect. According to the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta and the Journal of the American Medical Association, "More deaths are caused each year by tobacco use than by all deaths from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides, and murders combined. This information is based on science, not politics or religion. I quit smoking six years ago after using for 25 years. Breaking the chains of this terrible and fatal addiction is possible but it's not as simple as saying, "I choose not to be a smoker today." I hope they triple the tax or better yet, outlaw the whole disgusting industry.
connor 7 months ago
Read my reply below. Obesity now accounts for a larger percentage of health care costs than Smoking according to 'Science Daily" and "Forbes". Fair is fair. Since it is alright to tax one vice we should fairly tax em all. The old arguments used to justify singling out one group of users over another no longer holds water so let's see the FAT Tax roll (Pun Intended) . Wonder how popular that one will be?
tonto_goldberg 7 months ago
Most people trust the CDC a lot more than trust "Forbes" which is a business magazine, and your "Science Daily" is a blog. Fair is fair, and science is science, and "Forbes" is not a reputable science reference. Leaving that behind for the moment, exactly how would you implement your proposed fat tax?
connor 7 months ago
The CDC has absolutely nothing to do with figuring healthcare costs in the US, especially as a whole so why would any trust even come into this? More Lefty mud raking but...
As for how. Personally I don't feel anything should suffer some single out tax but I guess it could be done just like tobacco taxes. Another words tax the soda and cookies. YA that would go over well.
connor 7 months ago
Wrong again oh Liberal one who wishes to impose their will on everyone around them.
Nicotine has been found to, or suspected to have several beneficial side effects. As an anti-inflammatory and as a dopamine stimulant. Even a simple internet search will show that. It has also been proven as a stimulant to increase attention span and help prevent accidents in highly repetitive actions or employment.
If used in excess or improperly it is deadly of course but what isn't? I am sure your blessed box wine is just as deadly when used in excess as well.
Also I can attest to the fact that honeybees LOVE tobacco blooms as do a large number of other pollinators.
also if I remember my college psych course correctly (and it hasn't changed in a decade ok ok two decades) the physical side effects of tobacco addiction are no where near as bad as say heroin. There is no debilitating illness and the body does not begin processing the nicotine like it does other drugs to the point of actually needing it to survive and causing organs to literally shut down without it.
tonto_goldberg 7 months ago
Then there is the opposing view, from Forbes no less.
forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/03/22/alcohol-obesity-and-smoking-do-not-cost-health-care-systems-money/
The problem comes from the very expensive end-of-life care that we apply to every illness in the USA. You can lead an exemplary life free of all vices and excesses, and you're still going to die. Most people end up on Medicare or Medicaid if they have a serious illness, and that's taxpayer money.
connor 7 months ago
Heh. I will take that explanation as well. Either way it destroys the justification so many have put out for taxing tobacco and insisting smokers were costing them money. I don't care how you slice it up singling out tobacco and letting obesity go is hypocritical.
CommanderBarkfeather 7 months ago
What exactly is the goal of this organization? Is it to discourage tobacco use (a goal that I, as a smoker would fully endorse) or to generate revenue from primarily lower income resources? Almost ALL of the money from the Tobacco Settlement, originally intended for tobacco cessation programs and subsequent medical expenses due to tobacco use, were diverted by Republican weasels in the Missouri House for budget balancing and pet projects. They used to call that larceny. And now, "for the sake of the children," Ms. Snodgrass needs more. As far as "the children" are concerned, that solution is simple: If you were born AFTER 2000 (an easily remembered number), you may not purchase tobacco... EVER! No matter how old you get to be! Stores who sell to them will be closed... PERMANENTLY! The smoking rates cannot help but drop, as we smokers eventually kill ourselves off and society can devote its considerations to other timely matters... like weasel control.
RobHunterJohnson 7 months ago
Smoked 3 9acks a day for 11 years, quit in 1983, the best thing I have ever done for myself! When they pursued the RJ REYNOLDS co. a few years ago, it came out that they had laced the kool products with chemicals to make you want them more? Then they studied young people who smoked? I have lost close people to smoking related illnesses? Rob
tonto_goldberg 7 months ago
Until they show up at the hospital with bronchitis, pneumonia, or one of several types of cancer and no money or insurance. Then we all get stuck with the bills. It's your business then - but we've got to cut back on Medicaid, right?
connor 7 months ago
If you wish to take that stance then we should begin taxing everyone by the pound. For every pound they are above their prime weight they should have to pay because that is as much of a health and public cost issue as smoking. Begin taxing soft drinks like New York and fatty foods as well.
tonto_goldberg 7 months ago
The stats indicate otherwise. The risk and cost of tobacco use is well documented. What do you have on obesity?
connor 7 months ago
Obesity now accounts for over 20% of healthcare costs. That's a huge chunk, more than smoking in fact. "Science Daily" had a study out on it back in May I believe if you want to look into it.
RobHunterJohnson 7 months ago
Grace, if everyone had insurance they could smoke, stuff cookies, drink to excess, and anything else they wanted too! Even high dive off cliffs for all I care, but I am tired of my insurance picking up the TAB... Rob
CommanderBarkfeather 7 months ago
I would suggest that if we are to get anywhere in this conversation, we keep the issues of tobacco use and the deficiencies of our national healthcare policy separate. True, both issues are prescient and deserve considerable discussion, but to lump the two into one will result in a futile exercise of bumper-sticker palaver. I've smoked for 45 years. I've had a major stroke, two heart attacks, quadruple bypass... How much more incentive do I need to quit smoking? I still smoke. If I didn't know better, I'd say this stuff is addictive. I congratulate (and envy) those who have managed to quit, but not everyone is the same. I will die from smoking. Why do we continue to sell this stuff to the new generations?
RobHunterJohnson 7 months ago
Commander, I am truly sorry about your health related to your smoking, after almost 30 years of abstenance from tobacco products I can still tell you I want one now and then? Like once a month? What a powerful grip! I have Son, and Nephew who do not smoke, but pack their mouths full of tobacco? Commander, you sound as if you have had access to good health care all your life. If you have been smoking for 45 years, you are right at medicare if not on it. Why not Tax all the sins? I am no saint, but I am aware of my health, and I try to do right for myself and my family. The convience stores are fighting this the hardest, guess what they have the most to lose? They are not worried about the health of anyone, but they are worried about their wallets? Lets get these young people off of tobacco before they start. Lets make this Republican legislater do right by the money they will recieve in the form of this new tax! 1 in 5 die from a smoking related illness in Missouri! I am willing to pay my fair share for everything we need to including HEALTH CARE! Vote yes on B. Rob
connor 7 months ago
CBF - Here is the real issue, at least for my stance. All these arguments and hair splitting over whether tobacco is habit forming or addictive and the health care discussions do matter. They matter because for YEARS those who wish to prey on others for money have used these issues to justify their scalping of the users, like yourself, of tobacco. Yet other substances which are just as habit forming and cause just as much cost to those around them like syrupy liquids loaded with sugar are ignored.
For all the bluster and self righteous posturing the real reason they hit tobacco is because they know they have the buyers of tobacco cornered because it is so habit forming. The pushers of these so called vice taxes are no better than the tobacco growers they condemn because they are preying on users for the same end result... MONEY. And they use hypocritical memes to justify their actions.
Don't be a hypocrite and don't prey on others like a drug dealer. Vote NO on B.
RobHunterJohnson 7 months ago
Conner so now we are back to, why does our health insurance take care of all the people who do not have it? You should read your itemized bills from your health care people, or a hospitalization! Smoking kills 1 in 5, it is not necessary, What used to be 25 cents is $4.50? If the tax is going to do some good, stopping even 1 child from going on to be smoker it is worth it, or helping 1 smoker quit. You do not have a TV, so I cannot expect you to recieve the paper, there is more to the article than what is at the top of this page! I suggests you start reading between the lines! Rob
connor 7 months ago
I get the paper every day as a matter of fact. It is still delivered to my property in Jefferson City. As for a television who needs one? Technology is wonderful there is nothing broadcast on a television that I cannot get on the internet. I know as a tax pusher that bothers you as it is much harder to get those extra little fees worked into internet than a cable line.
If you are so worried about the costs than you should be pushing for other vice taxes as well. It is that simple, you are preying on those who are "addicted" to tobacco. There are other areas of healthcare that you should be interested in as well if cost is your objective.
Selecting out individual groups for special taxation is a slippery slope and those who do the selecting are morally nothing better than pushers themselves.
RobHunterJohnson 7 months ago
Oh but you see it is not, it is the group that consumes the product that also as an end result uses the Health Care after the tobacco has done its toll, so yes they should tax, and price these things out of young peoples grasp,as well as educate, but then the the gas stations, and the tobacco growers and the RJ REYNOLDS would loose the Money, and that is what it all boils down to my money, and your money if you have insurance paying for all these poor smokers who can afford tobacco, but not insurance! Rob
connor 7 months ago
Then you should be screaming for an obesity tax since obesity costs us more in healthcare costs than tobacco. C'mon it's easy get yourself worked up in the same way. Save a fat kid!!! You're an Obama supporter Mooshell will be glad for your support in this effort.
Three wolves and two sheep are voting on what's for dinner. This time it's the sheep who smoke who get eaten but the fatted lambs are in the wings.
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