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Reps take on plan to boost cigarette tax 

Who would have thought that buying a pack of smokes could get so complicated?

The House Finance Committee spent hours Friday untwisting the intricacies of taxing a package of cigarettes.

There is the state excise tax, which Gov. Donald Carcieri has proposed boosting by a dollar — from $2.46 to $3.46 per pack — in his revised budget for the current year.

There is the inventory tax to slap the extra dollar assessment on every pack that is already on store shelves, having already been taxed at the lower rate.

And don’t forget the sales tax, and the stamping discount — 1 percent of the total tax, according to Carcieri’s proposal, for the wholesalers who have to actually apply the stamps to each package of cigarettes.

And that doesn’t take into account the minimum markup, actually two minimum markups

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