Officials say extra $2.60 per pack from combined initiative would invite dealing on black market
Jump to full article: Inside Bay Area, 2005-12-14
Author: Steve Geissinger, SACRAMENTO BUREAU
Intro: Two dueling groups combined their proposed ballot measures Tuesday into one that would slap a $2.60 tax on a $4 pack of cigarettes to aid health care -- but officials said the 300 percent tax hike also would turn California into a gold mine for terrorists.
The California Hospital Association and anti-smoking groups, eyeing the November ballot, said the good far outweighs cigarette-smuggling concerns. It would provide nearly $2.3 billion annually for emergency rooms, children's health insurance and nursing education.
But in an acknowledgment of the cigarette-smuggling problem, the measure would also set aside $20 million a year for law enforcement efforts.
Federal and state officials already are waging an uphill battle against cigarette smuggling fromlow-tax states to high-tax states, where the cigarettes are sold at a discount.
Many of the illegal operations are now tied to terrorism. . . .
Radley Balko of the Cato Institute in the nation's capital said New York's black market "has aided a bevy of international terrorist organizations and nefarious elements, including the Russian mafia, Chinatown gangs, the Irish Republican Army, Hezbollah and al-Qaida."
In 2002, Hezbollah ringleader Mohammad Youssef Hammoud was arrested in Charlotte, N.C., for operating a cigarette-smuggling ring that bought low-tax cigarettes in North Carolina and sold them on the black market in high-tax Michigan, Balko said.
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