GRANT, Neb. — A recent survey reveals that 73 percent of state voters are in favor of increasing the state’s cigarette tax, by $1.35 per pack, to help reduce the budget deficit and fund healthcare programs. The $1.35-per-pack increase is less than one proposed bill that may come before the state legislature this year. As NACS reported last week, Nebraska Sen. Mike Gloor’s is proposing increasing the cigarette tax to $1.99. A proposed increase was supported by an overwhelming majority of voters regardless of party affiliation, with a thumbs up from 74 percent of Republicans, 72 percent of Democrats and 75 percent of Independents, according to The Grant Tribune Sentinel. The poll was released by a coalition of health groups, including the American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, American Lung Association in … Read entire article »

LINCOLN — Huddled in his pickup truck for warmth, just after flicking ash from his cigarette through a narrow slit in the driver’s-side window, Jon McQuillan voiced an immediate reaction to the idea of tripling the state’s tax on tobacco products. “I think it (stinks),” said the 27-year-old landscape contractor, as he sat parked outside a Lincoln coffee shop. McQuillan, who smokes a pack a day, is probably in the minority. A poll of 500 likely Nebraska voters, commissioned by the American Cancer Society and released Tuesday, found that 73 percent of respondents favored a $1.35-a-pack increase in taxes on cigarettes. Even some smokers — who now constitute less than 17 percent of all Nebraskans — say they’d be OK with paying nearly $2 a pack in state taxes. “I’d rather pay that because it’s … Read entire article »

Tobacco users in New York will be taking another hit to their wallets after new cigarette and tobacco tax hike was approved. Smokers can expect to pay over $11.00 per pack with the new $1.60 per pack tax. New York has the highest cigarette tax and the price hike is effective starting on July 1, 2010. Smokeless tobacco products weren’t left unscathed in the tax increase, consumers that use this product can expect to pay $2.00 an ounce tax – over a double from the current .96 cents an ounce. This tax will be enforced beginning on August 1, 2010. Cigars, dips and other tobacco products will jump from a 46% tax to a 75% tax. New Yorkers – there’s no time like the present to start a tobacco cessation plan or … Read entire article »