Post by Logan on Feb 23, 2016 20:14:46 GMT -6
Legislation to increase the state tax on cigarettes by $1 a pack passed the West Virginia Senate Tuesday on a bipartisan 26-6 vote (SB 420), with advocates calling it an opportunity to close major budget shortfalls and to improve public health.
Sen. Tom Takubo, R-Kanawha, a physician, noted that 10 times as many West Virginians die from tobacco-related illness as die from narcotics overdoses and said the existing 55-cent-a-pack tax is not enough to motivate smokers to quit.
“You have to hit somebody hard enough in the pocketbook that they say, ‘Now, I’ll quit,’ ” Takubo said.
While tobacco taxes are sometimes seen as inordinately burdensome on the poor, Takubo said smokers spend an average of $4,700 a year on cigarettes, money he suggested would greatly benefit low-income families.
- See more at: www.wvgazettemail.com/news/20160223/wv-senate-passes-1-a-pack-cigarette-tax-increase
Sen. Tom Takubo, R-Kanawha, a physician, noted that 10 times as many West Virginians die from tobacco-related illness as die from narcotics overdoses and said the existing 55-cent-a-pack tax is not enough to motivate smokers to quit.
“You have to hit somebody hard enough in the pocketbook that they say, ‘Now, I’ll quit,’ ” Takubo said.
While tobacco taxes are sometimes seen as inordinately burdensome on the poor, Takubo said smokers spend an average of $4,700 a year on cigarettes, money he suggested would greatly benefit low-income families.
- See more at: www.wvgazettemail.com/news/20160223/wv-senate-passes-1-a-pack-cigarette-tax-increase