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Share on Facebook8-17-2009 - $1.50 boost in cigarette tax looms as fiscal noose tightens
By Dan Walters, Sacramento Bee
As California's fiscal crisis deepens, despite desperate efforts by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature, the state's politicians are casting about for ways to relieve the financial - and political - pressure.
That's why, almost by default, raising the state's cigarette tax, now 87 cents a pack, has again moved to the Capitol's front burner.
The American Cancer Society and other anti-smoking groups are pushing a higher tax on smoking and other tobacco use, citing increases in other states, 10 just this year, that have made California's levy relatively low.
The Legislature's majority Democrats already have endorsed a $1.50-per-pack increase that they contend would raise
$1.2 billion a year.
Any increase in tobacco taxes, however, would require at least some Republican support because of the constitutional requirement for two-thirds votes on new taxes. So it's not surprising that tobacco companies have been ramping up their opposition, distributing a study of cigarette taxes by the Michigan-based Mackinac Center for Public Policy contending that more than one-third of the cigarettes consumed in California are from the black market.
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As California's fiscal crisis deepens, despite desperate efforts by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature, the state's politicians are casting about for ways to relieve the financial - and political - pressure.
That's why, almost by default, raising the state's cigarette tax, now 87 cents a pack, has again moved to the Capitol's front burner.
The American Cancer Society and other anti-smoking groups are pushing a higher tax on smoking and other tobacco use, citing increases in other states, 10 just this year, that have made California's levy relatively low.
The Legislature's majority Democrats already have endorsed a $1.50-per-pack increase that they contend would raise
$1.2 billion a year.
Any increase in tobacco taxes, however, would require at least some Republican support because of the constitutional requirement for two-thirds votes on new taxes. So it's not surprising that tobacco companies have been ramping up their opposition, distributing a study of cigarette taxes by the Michigan-based Mackinac Center for Public Policy contending that more than one-third of the cigarettes consumed in California are from the black market.
Source Read More here
IWanttoQuitSmoking.com Hypnosis Link
Hypnosis Basics (video below)
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