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• Miss. cigarette tax rising for 1st time since '85  

Jump to full article: Associated Press (AP), 2009-05-14
Author: SHELIA BYRD

Intro:

Republican Gov. Haley Barbour, a former tobacco lobbyist long opposed to raising Mississippi's cigarette tax, relented Wednesday in the face of slumping budget revenues and signed the state's first increase in nearly a quarter century.

The state's 18-cents-a-pack excise tax hadn't changed since 1985. On Friday, it rises to 68 cents a pack.

Mississippi becomes the latest state to make smokers pay more to boost finances during a recession. Kentucky and Arkansas also enacted cigarette tax increases this year. In Florida, Gov. Charlie Crist is expected to sign a $1 increase.

Barbour signed the legislation as Mississippi struggles with an estimated revenue shortfall of $400 million for the year that ends June 30.

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