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Cigarette tax reduced sales, senator says 

State Sen. Herman Quirmbach, D-Ames, gave the Legislature a pat on the back Monday for passing a $1 cigarette tax increase last year. He says the tax increase is responsible, in part, for reducing cigarette sales.

The Iowa Department of Revenue said just over 5 billion cigarettes were sold the year before the tax went into effect, a number that dropped to 3.2 billion in the 12 months after the tax increase was implemented.

"We have made tremendous progress, in just a single year, in the reduction of this deadly threat that burdens and threatens the lives and the health of so many of our Iowa citizens and constituents," Quirmbach said.

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