Tobacco.org

AARON: N.Y. boosts budget on backs of smokers and store owners 

When a tobacco wholesaler like Elmira Distributing Co. in Elmira Heights buys its cigarettes from Big Tobacco, the packs come without tax stamps.

The wholesaler then buys the stamps and puts them on the packs before selling them to retailers.

When the taxes increase, the wholesalers count the packs in their inventory and pay the difference between the old tax and the new. Then they pay the new tax rate from that point on.

Retailers buy the smokes at a price that includes the new tax rate and the additional cost is passed on to consumers -- or more specifically, consumers who smoke, says Rich Rinde, the distributing company's vice president. . . .

When New York raised its cigarette tax in 2000, Internet cigarette sales to New Yorkers from vendors on American Indian reservations, where smokes are sold tax-free, jumped as much as 20 percent.

James Calvin, president of the New York Association of Convenience Stores, estimated western New York convenience stores lost anywhere from 25 percent to 50 percent of their cigarette sales after the 2000 increase of 55 cents.

Here's an idea worth considering: Roll back the state cigarette tax to its previous $1.50 level and re-instate the 4 percent state tax on clothing sales less than $110.

It likely would raise more money than the cigarette tax hike and, by spreading the hurt over a larger group of consumers, would make smokers feel they aren't being picked on.

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