Post by pavel on Jan 13, 2016 19:59:12 GMT -6
Hiking taxes on tobacco products — including e-cigarettes — would provide a fix not only for the health of New Mexicans but for the state’s revenues, a lawmaker and health organizations said Wednesday as they promoted a “buck-a-pack” tax increase ahead of the upcoming session.
They said a bill sponsored by Sen. Howie Morales, D-Silver City, would bring in an estimated $33 million more a year even as it kept kids from buying tobacco products and prodded adult users to quit.
The tax “is going to save lives, it’s going to save health care costs, and it’s going to generate needed money for the state of New Mexico,” Morales said at a news conference.
He’s on the budget-writing Senate Finance Committee, which along with its House counterpart is grappling with an uncertain revenue picture for next year because of dropping oil prices.
Under Senate Bill 77 the tax on a pack of cigarettes would increase from $1.66 to $2.66, taking the cost of a pack to about $7 and yielding an additional $25 million a year, according to the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.
Read more: www.abqjournal.com/705576/abqnewsseeker/bill-would-boost-taxes-on-cigarettes-other-tobacco-products.html?utm_source=abqjournal.com&utm_medium=sidebar+-+post+list+-+north+-+story+page&utm_campaign=post+list
They said a bill sponsored by Sen. Howie Morales, D-Silver City, would bring in an estimated $33 million more a year even as it kept kids from buying tobacco products and prodded adult users to quit.
The tax “is going to save lives, it’s going to save health care costs, and it’s going to generate needed money for the state of New Mexico,” Morales said at a news conference.
He’s on the budget-writing Senate Finance Committee, which along with its House counterpart is grappling with an uncertain revenue picture for next year because of dropping oil prices.
Under Senate Bill 77 the tax on a pack of cigarettes would increase from $1.66 to $2.66, taking the cost of a pack to about $7 and yielding an additional $25 million a year, according to the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.
Read more: www.abqjournal.com/705576/abqnewsseeker/bill-would-boost-taxes-on-cigarettes-other-tobacco-products.html?utm_source=abqjournal.com&utm_medium=sidebar+-+post+list+-+north+-+story+page&utm_campaign=post+list