5.25.2012

American Austerity and Cigarette Taxes

There's a lot of things going on in the world today, economy wise. Some European countries like Greece are having austerity programs. Austerity means cutting programs and raising taxes to get more money for a government as a result of a bad economy. This has only sort of started in America. One of the main reasons for demonizing tobacco smoking is so that the government can tax it so much. They've been exorbitantly taxing cigarette smokers in America for the last couple of decades, but with the economy being bad, there is good reason to believe that the already sky-high taxes on cigarettes may go higher. Watch out for austerity measures, and higher tobacco taxes.

California Prop 29 will be decided soon

In California, Proposition 29 may raise tobacco taxes even more. The vote is in a couple of weeks. Tobacco companies have been trying to get voters to be more aware of the new proposition. A few months ago, there was far less opposition to the bill than there is right now. As of May 25, there are still more people that support the new tax hike on cigarettes in California, but the tobacco companies have been making ground. This new tax increase is going to be a toss up.