DEL.ICIO.USSmoke break gets more expensive with tax hike
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Smokers, spitters and snuff lovers are fuming over a blend of steep federal tax hikes slapped on tobacco products Wednesday.
Ben Smith/bsmith@ajc.com
Linda Becker of Covington takes a smoke break outside her downtown Atlanta office building.
After midnight Tuesday the federal tax on a pack of cigarettes jumped from 39 cents to a dollar and from two cents to 50 cents for small cigars. The tax on loose cigarette tobacco skyrocketed from $1.98 a pound to $24.78, potentially wiping out the market for roll-your-own cigarette smokers.
The tax hikes are intended to pay for expanded health care for children.
At Discount Smoke & Tobacco in Smyrna, some customers are already revolting.
“Oh they’re raising hell,” said store manager Sam Merchant. “They’re saying Obama go to hell. One guy wanted to protest in front of my store.”
President Obama, himself a cigarette smoker struggling to quit, in February signed the legislation raising tobacco taxes to fund the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.
Smokers and dealers of tobacco products say they don’t oppose extending health coverage to 4 million uninsured children, as provided by the legislation, they just don’t want to foot the entire bill.
“This sucks,” said Linda Becker, between tugs on a cigarette. “It’s like they’re trying to gouge us more at a really bad time. We’re under a lot of stress.
“And this,” said Becker, lifting her cigarette, “is our stress reliever.”
Becker, a 45-year-old accountant from Covington, was among a legion of downtown Atlanta job-holders trying to enjoy a lunchtime smoke with fellow puffers on Tuesday.
Some didn’t seem to be enjoying themselves. The weather was cloudy and the conversation appeared stuck on the high cost of bad habits.
“Cigarettes … food. Cigarettes … food,” said Anne Thomas, 60, as she balanced invisible scales in her hands. “Who can afford cigarettes anymore.”
“Today, we quit,” said Thomas, a nurse who’s been smoking for 40 years.
Anticipating that higher taxes will lead to less smoking overall, tobacco companies have already started raising their prices.
Becker, Thomas and other smokers said they’ve seen the price of a carton of cigarettes rise by as much as $12 in the past few weeks. Previously, they’d been running between $21 and $28, they said.
At a downtown Atlanta CVS, the cost of a 3/4 oz. packet of loose tobacco jumped from $1.89 to $4.69 in one day according to a store manager.
Tom Patton, owner of Ash Cigar Co. in Buckhead, said the government “is going to tax the sale of loose tobacco out of existence.”
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