Illinois' higher cigarette tax has lawmen bracing for increased tobacco black market activities

It's been one of those crazy days (weeks, actually, and it's just Tuesday!) where I think about having a cigarette.

I quit smoking 30 years ago as a gift to my never-inhaled-a-cancer-stick hubby, but I still think about lighting one up now and then.

A lot of folks in California right now are probably chain smoking or whatever other habit they turn to when they're nervous. The Golden State is voting as I type on a proposal to almost double California's cigarette excise tax.

There are lots of arguments for and against such a tax hike. They were debated recently in Illinois. The pro-tax contingent won there.

Prairie State smokers will be paying $1.98 more a pack as soon as Gov. Pat Quinn signs the measure, which he is expected to do any time now.

Higher tobacco taxes, mean illegal cigarette sellers: And the enactment of the higher tax means law enforcement officers can expect to see an increase in cigarette smuggling in Illinois.

It's already started.

The Chicago Tribune reported today on three men who had planned to buy more than 1,000 packs of unstamped cigarettes to resell. Without the official markings, the trio would have avoided paying local taxes. 

Their cigarette seller, however, was an informant for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The three men now face felony charges.

When the new tax pushes the price of a pack of cigarettes in Chicago past $10, expect to see more black market cigarette efforts as smugglers and illegal sellers try to turn a profit.

"It's going to get a lot worse," Michael Anton, commander of special operations at the Cook County sheriff's office, told the newspaper. "There's so much money involved in it. If you have a large cache of cigarettes and you're selling them cheaper, people are going to come to you. Word gets around."

Of course, the good news is that the higher price of cigarettes could mean more Illinois residents join me in the no-smoking section.

"When the price goes up, especially by a big amount like this, you get a lot of smokers who are going to want to try to quit," Frank J. Chaloupka, economics professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, told the Tribune. "Our estimates suggest that for every 10 percent increase you get in price, you see about 2 percent of smokers quit."

Do you smoke? Would higher cigarette prices make you quit? Would you seek out cheaper, but illegally untaxed cigarettes? Or would you pay whatever it costs to feed your nicotine habit?

You also might find these items of interest:

• Smoking out cigarette smugglers
• NY tax collector says thanks for smoking
• The fine art of social policy taxation

Comments

[Karl]

People talk about health care costs for smokers and how it affects them. What the heck, lets tax the smokers. Well lets go farther, Tax anything that can cause harm. Bullets have put many people in the hospital, $10.00 per bullet tax.
Knives: $2.00 per knife
Baseball bats: $10.00 per bat
Automobiles: $5000.00 per car
Rocks, Bricks, any item that can be thrown $1.00 ea.
Bicycles, Skateboards, Skis, etc.. $125.00
All alcohol products: $1.00 per oz.
All unhealthy food products: $10.00 per pound

TAX TAX TAX TAX

One step at a time....

[Bob Cavalluzzi]

I'm not a big fan of taxes such as this, but this is one area that I do agree with this kind of taxation. In fact, I would raise taxes each and every year on a fixed schedule. Let them pay $50 a pack. There is a tremendous public health cost associated with smoking. The only way to end it is to make sure the next generation of smokers can't afford to start.

Of course, I also think those collected tax dollars should be required to fund research, anti smoking campaigns, and offset medical costs associated with smoking. They should NOT be funds that just get squandered by politicians in other ways, as is the norm.