I'm no fan or friend of NJ governor Christie. His firm treatment of reporters and set up citizens is ok by me (God knows many a reporter needs his ass set straight, they are not the representative of the people.) but other than being a lover of the cameras, he is a typical RINO. Now the latest example of this.
Last month I posted on the propaganda coming out against the e-cigarette industry and my point is if tobacco is so bad than ban it. But they never will because the government make too much money over the addiction of people. Another example of it.
States push to regulate, tax booming e-cigarette industry
WASHINGTON – While waiting for the debate on electronic cigarettes to heat up on Capitol Hill, several state and local governments are pressing ahead with their own agendas for taxing and regulating the popular battery-powered smoking alternatives.
Right now, there is no uniform national approach to regulating the vapor-based e-cigarettes. They are mostly free from federal rules and typically are subject only to state sales taxes.
But lawmakers in more than two dozen cash-strapped states are racing to regulate them as a new source of revenue. For some, this means tacking on an excise tax -- which is a fee on a specific product, and often dubbed a "sin tax" when applied to socially shunned products like cigarettes.
Minnesota has led the charge and is currently the only state that’s got a specific tax policy for e-cigarettes on the books. The 2012 decision subjects vapor inhalers to a 95 percent tax that is stapled to the wholesale cost of the product.
According to the Minnesota Department of Revenue, e-cigarettes are considered tobacco products and are subject to the state’s tobacco tax. Distributors there are required to pay the tobacco tax or risk losing their license. Retailers must purchase e-cigarettes from distributors licensed by the state and are expected to “collect and remit sales tax on e-cigarette sales.”
In total, Minnesota estimates it will bring in $1.16 billion from all of its tobacco taxes in fiscal year 2014-2015.
Other states are taking notice.
In his 2015 budget proposal last month, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie pitched a plan to hike taxes on electronic cigarettes to match the rate of regular cigarettes -- about $2.70 per pack.
...In recent years, as much as 40 percent of all cigarettes smoked in New Jersey were smuggled into the state illegally, resulting in a loss of more than $500 million in uncollected tax revenue each year, he says.
“By making New Jersey uncompetitive in e-cigarette pricing, the state would encourage smuggling, which will cost New Jersey small businesses tens of thousands of dollars in lost revenue,” he said.
But to some, like New Jersey Democratic Assemblyman Dan Benson, taxing e-cigarettes is not only a fiscal responsibility but also sends an important message to would-be smokers.
“If e-cigarettes are taxed less than regular cigarettes, we’re sending a message out there that they’re somehow safer, and I think the jury is out on that,” he recently told a New Jersey radio station...
OK Mr Benson, if the "jury is out" as you say, how about we wait until the "jury is in" to make a decision on taxing them as tobacco. We know if the jury says they are less harmful than tobacco you won't cut the taxes back. Oh, Mr Benson, you may wanna read this.
...According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the vapor from e-cigarettes has “far fewer of the toxins found in smoke compared to traditional cigarettes...”
Again, if tobacco is this bad, ban it. But something else is going on. The Golden Goose of tobacco is getting cooked a bit:
The boom in smuggling to avoid cigarette taxes
More than half of the cigarettes sold in New York State are smuggled in from other places to avoid the Empire State's taxes on smokes, which have soared nearly 200 percent since 2006, according to a report issued by the conservative Tax Foundation.
New York is the highest net importer of smuggled cigarettes -- illegal smokes account for 56.9 percent of the state's total market. New York's cigarettes tax is $4.35 per pack, the country's highest. The situation there isn't unique. The Tax Foundation also cites a study that found that 58.7 percent of discarded cigarettes found in five Northeastern cities lacked proper tax stamps.
Taxes on cigarettes, which are designed to discourage smoking, vary widely. States such as Missouri, North Carolina and Virginia have levies of less than a $1 per pack. These wide differences make smuggling "both a national problem and a lucrative criminal enterprise," according to the Tax Foundation.
Antismoking activists have long argued that fewer people will buy cigarettes if they're expensive. Chicago recently raised its cigarette taxes for that reason. Combined with state and local levies, the total is now $7.17 a pack.
The smuggling problem "is a lot smaller than the study lets on," said Thomas Carr, director of national policy at the American Lung Association, noting that the Tax Foundation's data come from the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, which has received funding from the tobacco industry. "Tobacco companies are generally against higher tobacco taxes."
In neighboring New Jersey, convenience store owners are fighting efforts by the state legislature to impose new taxes on e-cigarettes that would nearly double their cost. E-cigarettes fans tout them as a healthier alternative to conventional smokes.
Activists such as the American Lung Association, however, argue that no evidence backs up that claim and others, such as e-cigarettes help people stop smoking regular cigarettes. Nonetheless, electronic smokes are surging in popularity, and experts note that should disparities in e-cigarette taxes develop among the states, they could also become attractive to smugglers.
"I would imagine it would be easier to smuggle electronic cigarettes because they are smaller," says Tax Foundation economist Scott Drenkard. "If you have any kind of differential, you are going to see arbitrage."
That is bull. I've known many friend who have cut back or quit cigarette smoking using e-cigs because it handles the physical addiction (nicotine) and the habit (the actual smoking) while not putting into your lungs the tar.
Again, if I was a bit paranoid I would be wondering if the American Lung Association finds this a threat to it's being. If everyone stopped smoking, they would not be needed....why do I hear the theme to
Coast to Coast in my head? :<)
