Cigarettes Tax Increase, Maryland News

A Maryland health advocacy group is pushing for a $1 tax increase in cigarette prices, after several years of successfully lobbying to raise taxes on tobacco products in the state. "It's the kind of thing that the public supports, and it will do a lot of good," said Vincent DeMarco, president of Maryland Citizens' Health Initiative. "If legislators take a good look at it, I think they'll pass it. Tobacco companies are powerful so there will be opposition, but I think there's a good chance it will happen."

Smoking Bans Good for Inhabitants' Health

Clean air has been ubiquitous around the state’s public spaces for more than two years thanks to the smoking ban. And the evidence is in that similar bans do more than banish smoke-filled workplaces – they improve residents’ health. Minnesota's Mayo Clinic found hospitalizations for heart attacks, strokes and respiratory diseases fell dramatically after governments passed workplace smoking bans. Hospital stays were down 15 percent for heart attacks; 16 percent for strokes; and 24 percent for respiratory diseases.

Tobacco Taxes Drop Good for Tobacco Users

Let's consider the size of the proposed tobacco tax increase in Proposition B. It's over five times the current tax. It would go from $1.70 to $9 per carton. Missouri does have a low tobacco tax, but a more than five times increase is obviously pure greed. Everyone would be outraged if the sales tax went up five times, say from 6 percent to 30 percent. And what would you be paying if your property tax was five times higher? Wouldn't it be fairer to all parties involved if the tax wasn't so high?