Smokers, drinkers say governor’s plan is a sin
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Despite the fact that Connecticut is forecasting a budget surplus of $507.8 million this year, Governor M. Jodi Rell has proposed raising income taxes by 10 percent, at a cost to Connecticut taxpayers of $3.4 billion over five years.? This is the first time any Connecticut governor has proposed raising the state income tax since it was created in 1991.? In addition, this proposal comes on top of an almost 12 percent income tax hike enacted by the General Assembly in 2003!?
Gov. Rell has also proposed boosting the state cigarette excise tax by 49 cents per pack, a 33 percent increase over the present $1.51 per pack state tax.? Of 40 state excise tax increases enacted in recent years, only eight actually met or exceeded revenue estimates.? The other 32 states fell short of projections by as much as 67 percent.?
What’s more, raising excise taxes targeted at consumers is regressive, disproportionately impacting the poor and those living on fixed incomes.? It will also encourage more people to purchase cigarettes in neighboring states or on the Internet, hurting Connecticut retail outlets. ?Worse yet, imposing so-called “sin” taxes on products like tobacco has encouraged illegal smuggling, which has even funded terrorist groups such as al Qaeda and Hezbollah!?
At a time of budget surpluses, there’s absolutely NO reason to raise ANY tax.? In fact, Gov. Rell should be returning surplus revenue to state taxpayers in the form of a TAX CUT!?
Smokers, drinkers say governor’s plan is a sin
Heather Barr
02/10/2005
Heather Barr
02/10/2005
DANBURY – Behind the counter at the Mill Plain Package store Wednesday afternoon, Ilda Palinka was disturbed to hear Gov. M. Jodi Rell wants the state to pass the largest cigarette tax increase in its history. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” said Palinka, 43, of Danbury. “The state keeps taxing us to death. How many times have they done it already?”
On Wednesday, Rell proposed raising the state’s $1.50-per-pack cigarette tax by 74 cents.
She also proposed increasing the tax on other tobacco products from 20 percent to 90 percent of the wholesale price and adding 15 percent to the state’s alcohol taxes.
These “sin taxes” would be used, in part, to close a $1.2 billion gap in the state budget, the governor said.
Looking around the store at the stock of beverages and cigarettes, Palinka had a practical complaint. “It will be a lot of work” to change all the prices, she said.
“It’s crazy,” said Sherman Joyce, 55, of Danbury, shopping at the Mill Plain Package store.
“They need to cut her (Rell’s) salary in half,” Joyce said. “They need to cut spending.”
With high taxes already driving manufacturers out of the state, he said, the only people left will be the very rich and those who work in service jobs like landscaping.
John Marcy Jr., owner of Mill Plain Package store, said he is tired of high taxes.
“We will only lose money,” he said. “People will go on to New York.”
“Enough’s enough,” said Paul Taylor, owner of Dodgingtown Liquor in Newtown. One of his customers had already complained about the proposed tax.
“I think they could reduce spending more,” said Taylor.
“That’s a lot of money. I could definitely see a drop in business,” said Christina Baker……….
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The Smoking Ruins
Governor Rell has proposed raising the state cigarette tax.
Governor Rell has proposed raising the state cigarette tax.
Connecticut smokers cant hack it.
by Adam Bulger – February 17, 2005
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I moved to Connecticut from Mayor Bloomberg’s New York. And, ultimately, a lot of the reason why I vacated elite, high-profile New York for Deadwood, Conn., was the considerably lower price of cigarettes. I’ve been able to redirect money to things like more drinks.
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I moved to Connecticut from Mayor Bloomberg’s New York. And, ultimately, a lot of the reason why I vacated elite, high-profile New York for Deadwood, Conn., was the considerably lower price of cigarettes. I’ve been able to redirect money to things like more drinks.
So I was distressed on Feb. 4, when Gov. Jodi Rell announced that with her first state budget, the state’s cigarette tax would be raised by 74 cents per pack, up from the $1.50 tax that the legislature passed in 2003.
Cigarette taxes are already Connecticut’s sixth-highest source of income. But apparently, that wasn’t enough.
One of the operative concepts tossed around after Rell’s announcement was that the proposed new cigarette tax would be commensurate with the tax rates in surrounding areas. On Feb. 5, a “a high-level capitol source” told the Courant that with the raise, Connecticut’s tax would still be “less than Rhode Island and less than New York City.” On Feb. 9, Senate majority leader Martin Looney (D-New Haven) told the Courant , “I support an increase. As long as we’re moving in tandem with our neighboring states, there isn’t a problem.”
It’s funny that Rhode Island and New York City keep coming up. Funny, but not coincidental. Rhode Island has the highest excise sales tax on cigarettes in the country, at $2.46 a pack. And, yes, our tax would still be lower than the $3 excise tax paid by dwellers of the five boroughs. That’s because the city has a $1.50 local excise tax in addition to a New York statewide excise tax.
But under Rell’s plan, Connecticut smokers would pay more for cigarettes than most people in New York state (eighth highest in the nation) and those in Massachusetts (sixth highest), the two other states that actually do border Connecticut.
There are two inherent problems with getting on the pro-smoking bandwagon. You have to side with big tobacco, the most rightly vilified corporate bloc in America. And you have to adopt some patently silly arguments.
A lot of smoking activists (and by smoking activists, I mean “drunks in the rain outside the bar”) I encounter are like nicotine-raspy Patrick Henrys. Not being allowed to smoke is not akin to tyranny; being a smoker does not make you a second-class citizen, and your freedom is not on the line. Still, the circumstances dictate that you act as if all of those things are true.
Smokers’ rights advocate and media gadfly Robin Potwora is executive director of the Torrington-based group–it’s unclear with how many members–Smoke Signals. She doesn’t have a problem with Big Tobacco, and early in my interview with her, even stated that Connecticut’s smoking ban is “more than unfair; it’s un-American.” She went on to use phrases like “business owners’ rights” and “pro-choice smoking coalitions,” and described smokers as being treated like “second-class citizens.”
Potwora is receiving $10,000 from R.J. Reynolds. (She would not disclose who else provides her with money.) But she was quick to point out that while she accepts R.J. Reynolds’ money, they don’t tell her what to do or say.
“The media has spun it like R.J. Reynolds gave me all this money and told me what to do with it,” she said. “There has been no communication about what I was to do with the money.”
Smoke Signals is fairly new. “We emerged in November,” Potwora said, “solely for the purpose of supporting Len Greene’s bill.” State Rep. Green, a Republican from Beacon Falls, proposed modifying the smoking ban, allowing for designated smoking areas in licensed public spaces.
Unfortunately, it appears that Potwora’s campaign has so far been unsuccessful. A statement on her website, reacting to the turnout for her extensively advertised Feb. 8 rally outside the state capitol, read, “Where were you on Feb. 8th? Not one cigarette smoker came to the public hearing!”
Representative Greene indicated that the tax and the ban could coexist.
“The tax on cigarettes has gone up, I think, three times in the last four years,” he said. “If we’re good enough to tax, give us a place to smoke.”
And that’s the rub. It’s not that smokers are “second-class citizens,” and it’s not that the state government is the Taliban. Rather, it’s that smokers are citizens, too, and there should be some public spaces–maybe even ones where we can order a beer and a burger–where we can light up.
That so many of our advocates are funded by Big Tobacco is unfortunate; that so many of my fellow smokers think of themselves as radically dispossessed is silly. But that doesn’t mean that we should be the designated punching bags. And it doesn’t mean that as Gov. Rell cuts services to the poor and refuses to adequately tax the super-rich, smokers’ addictions should be exploited to help pay her way.
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