A hearing has been scheduled in the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday.
The measure would raise the tax from $2 to $3. The bill also increases taxes on other tobacco products.
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Why just one dollar, why not five, then we can breath clean air.
ReplyDeleteglad i am so close to virginia
ReplyDeleteVirginia... half the price. No thanks, MD.
ReplyDeleteAfter they legalize Pot and people get hooked, they will tax the hell out of that also. But one thing they don't touch is Alcohol.
ReplyDeleteAlso one of America's leading killer.
They raised the tobacco tax in 2007 and guess what happened...they collected much *LESS* in tax revenue because most people went to neighboring states too by their smokes. The Maryland Legislature thinks common citizens are idiots.
ReplyDeleteI am 2 miles from Delaware, here I. go to get my smokes there. And to those who don't smoke how about they raise taxes by a dollar on all alcohol and .50 cents on all candy while they are at it. It is wrong to target a group for their choice just because it is unpopular to smoke these days.
ReplyDeleteSo they didn't learn from the last hike?? This is typical Libturd math. Raise taxes, so projected revenues fall when sales plumment. They cry we are broke so they can raise the tax again. If these idiots were smart they would reduce the tax to below surrounding states. So then MD would gain revenue not lose it again!!!
ReplyDelete11:01 - Don't touch alcohol? Not so.
ReplyDeleteAdult beverages in Ocean City are taxed at 10%. Just across the line in Delaware, there's no tax. Politicians in Annapolis know it's hard to quit smoking tobacco. That's why they keep gouging smokers for more tax. Once weed is "legalized" in Maryland, the gouging will continue with that substance.
Ocean City imposes taxes which the state has nothing to do with, you are comparing apples to oranges with O.C. and taxes!
DeleteA smart person would start looking for a location across the border from Maryland to open a tobacco shop. There are getting to be more VAPE shops at the beach than places to buy beer.
ReplyDeletevape will be taxed next, just a matter of time
ReplyDeleteRealistically, a good percentage of the tax income received by the state is carousel tax money, because it is the welfare recipients using the cash withdrawal from the independence card spending accounts to buy them, and the college kids using the left over Pell grant and federal student loans they didn't need and hope they will not have to pay back, to by their blunts to smoke weed. Thus you and I should be against any further tax increases on tobacco. So in essence, non smokers are paying for the smokers. That's how it works.
ReplyDeleteGo ahead Mike and the rest of you idiot Democrats in the State House. Raise the tax on cigs and why stop at just a dollar? Hell, go $5 or $10., it'll make no difference to most smokers here on the shore. I, for one, will still be paying $2.90 a pack.
ReplyDeletePolitics. Period. The anti-smoking group, which is a "non-profit" organization with all top management people drawing well into six figures a year, need to have SOMETHING passed or they don't need to exist any longer. The Lobbyists for that group need something to happen or they don't get paid. The politicians are marked as "pro-smoking" if they don't pass the tax.
ReplyDeleteIt's exactly the same with MADD. (Look for a mandatory breath test in every car in the country very soon, along with 0.00 blood alcohol level if you are driving. It's coming, I assure you.)
The politicians have to know the fact that only 10% of smokers in New York buy their smokes in their state. The more the tax goes up, the less they bring in. They travel across borders, buy at the Indian reservations, or connect with a serviceman that has access to the PX.
Ten years ago I always went to Delaware (from MD) for smokes. When the tax got too high there, I started driving to Virginia. The parking lot is filled with MD tags every time I go there.
1239 I can't believe you still smoke!! It will kill you that is a fact not fiction. I don't know anyone that smokes anymore.
ReplyDeleteDon't judge! :-)
DeleteI am 73 years old... Been smoking since I was 9 years old. I've tried to quit many, many times - could not shake it.
Worst habit in the world. Wish I didn't have it - but I do.
Should be 30 dollars a pack. Extra charge so go directly to the elderly and disabled...
ReplyDeleteI'm gonna plant half an acre of tobacco this spring, dry it in an outbuilding and chop it in a blender then roll it with my rolling kit or put it in my pipe.
ReplyDeleteTax that you POS.
1:13PM - OC imposes an add-on to the MD sales tax. It was 1% for the purpose of paying for the long since paid for Convention Center. Today, I was taxed a total of 18% in a local OC Burger King. That's 18% more than McDonalds in Delaware.
ReplyDeleteThey need to give out free soap and laundry detergent to smokers with each pack of smokes. As the lyrics in the song go, "ugh, that smell."
ReplyDeleteRaise it to $100 per pack. Then EVERY SMOKER will go out of state instead of just HALF of them! Maryland stores will no longer have to use up valuable retail space to carry all those different brands, and will be able to up their profits by using that space for new merchandise. AND they would no longer have to waste bookkeeping time paying the tax$!
ReplyDeleteWin- win!
413 if you are eating fast food you should be taxed higher.
ReplyDeleteLegislating behavior has become an old tired thing. Worse than prohibition and we all saw how that worked out. You can't legislate behavior. It's not going to deter people from smoking, plus on the Eastern Shore, smokers are too close to Delaware and Virginia for this to be prohibitive. Maryland legislators really need to just move on. They're like a love-sick boy who can't get over his girlfriend. They just go on and on and on.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteI'm not a smoker, never have been. Is there anything that Maryland doesn't tax. 5 more years till retirement and then Maryland can kiss my over tax paying ass. Out of here !!
VAPE? Looks to me as if your washing your feet with your socks on.
ReplyDeleteSad thing is most smokers cannot afford what they smoke unless the government pays for there necessities and what little cash they get there hands on goes for dumb $hit like cigs.
. As the lyrics in the song go, "ugh, that smell."
ReplyDeleteFebruary 17, 2016 at 5:23 PM
actually it's oohoo that smell