Cigarette tax increase heads to governor - 0 views
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Stella Nuber on 24 Oct 12The government wants to implement a one dollar raise in taxes on cigarettes, in order to ward consumers off them. The government is doing so to warn how dangerous and harmful cigarettes are.They want to discourage children and teens from smoking. Another reason for the tax raise of $1.98 is to help pay the state's rising cots for health care for the poor. There was a $2.7 billion shortage in the Medicaid funding, which needs to be recovered through collecting taxes. As cigarettes are quite inelastic, people will continue to buy them even if the price increases, as they are an addictive good and cannot be put down easily. Substitutes would not be an option in this case, as there is a tax added on other tobacco products as well.