Jump to full article: Vicksburg (MS) Post, 2009-06-28
Intro: If not immediately, then sometime soon Mississippi legislators need to plug a hole that gives plug tobacco, other forms of tobacco and off-brand cigarettes an unfair pricing advantage.
Gov. Haley Barbour has said he might include supplemental tobacco fees in a special session call, perhaps this week. We won't know until the governor -- who has the power to control topics when lawmakers meet outside their regular dates -- prepares his letter setting the agenda. . . .
Altria, of course, wants the levies leveled in the name of price competitiveness. But lawmakers should add a fee to makers of nonsettling brands because it doesn't make sense to, in effect, subsidize cigarette companies inflicting the same amount of harm on the state's people but not paying a penny in damages.
As for tobacco in other forms -- snuff, dip, chewing and etc. -- Barbour wants to do what the federal government and several states have done -- shift to a weight-based tax method that more closely equates the tax on smokeless tobacco with smoking tobacco.
The overall revenue difference to the state would not be great. It's just a matter of equalization. And it should be done.
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