Post by Logan on Feb 10, 2016 3:28:58 GMT -6
Two bills related to taxes on cigarettes and cigars were approved by the Senate Rules and Judiciary Committee on Tuesday and will move to consideration by the full Legislature.
The cigarette bill would increase excise taxes on the value of each carton of cigarettes imported from 34 percent to 45 percent. It also would establish a “Virgin Islands Sin Tax Fund,” with 95 percent of proceeds going to the General Fund and 5 percent given annually to the V.I. Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence to be used for treatment and prevention programs.
Committee members approved the measure by a vote of four to one, with two members absent.
Senator Janette Millin Young was the only senator opposed.
“I really don’t like smoking,” Millin Young said. But she objected to, “taxing what some may find as bad behavior” and said she is not comfortable with the way money from the General Fund is being spent.
Read more: www.virginislandsdailynews.com/news/local/smoking-tax-bills-pass-to-full-legislature/article_ef9b7923-c13d-53db-9e4c-a271ed8fe64d.html
The cigarette bill would increase excise taxes on the value of each carton of cigarettes imported from 34 percent to 45 percent. It also would establish a “Virgin Islands Sin Tax Fund,” with 95 percent of proceeds going to the General Fund and 5 percent given annually to the V.I. Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence to be used for treatment and prevention programs.
Committee members approved the measure by a vote of four to one, with two members absent.
Senator Janette Millin Young was the only senator opposed.
“I really don’t like smoking,” Millin Young said. But she objected to, “taxing what some may find as bad behavior” and said she is not comfortable with the way money from the General Fund is being spent.
Read more: www.virginislandsdailynews.com/news/local/smoking-tax-bills-pass-to-full-legislature/article_ef9b7923-c13d-53db-9e4c-a271ed8fe64d.html