Tobacco.org

• A View to a Kill 

Florida Governor Charlie Crist didn't try to hide his motives when he signed into law a $1-per-pack cigarette tax hike Wednesday, reported The Orlando Sentinel. "I view it more as a health issue than a tax issue," said Crist, a Republican who broke with a career-long opposition to tax increases. "Ronald Reagan used to say if you want to kill something, tax it. It wouldn't be bad if we killed smoking." As of July 1, Florida's new cigarette tax is $1.34 per pack. An equivalent increase applies to smokeless and pipe tobacco, but not cigars.

The extra $1 tax is expected to generate more than $900 million a year, to be used to offset Medicaid costs and fund cancer research, said the report.

With the increase, Florida's cigarette tax goes from sixth-lowest in the nation to slightly above the national average of $1.23 a pack, the report added. Florida's neighbors have some of the lowest levies in the nation: Georgia (37 cents), Alabama (42 cents) and South Carolina (7 cents).

David Sutton, a spokesperson for New York City-based Altria Group Inc., the parent company of Philip Morris, Richmond, Va., told the newspaper that Florida's tax hike would prompt many consumers to seek tax-free ways to buy their smokes, whether on an Indian reservation or the Internet. "Obviously, it's a big hit to our consumers and to retailers as well," he said. "You've got a very difficult economy out there."

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