[Gee ... the antis ought to start a union. They are saying ... if we don't get a cut of any cigarette tax increase, were on strike. Don't expect us to use our bag of tricks and provide cover for you ... like showing how a increase in the tax will save lives. We never cared about that anyway. The only lives were interested in saving is our own ... with a good paying job! These folk's are becoming more and more transparent ... greed tend's to that.]


"Anti-smoking groups fight cigarette tax hike

They want governor to rescind planned cuts to anti-tobacco effort aimed at teenagers

Thursday, February 20, 2003

BY SUSAN K. LIVIO
Star-Ledger Staff

A coalition of public health groups yesterday vowed to campaign against Gov. James E. McGreevey's proposed 40-cent tax increase on a pack of cigarettes if he doesn't rescind his proposed cuts to anti-smoking programs.

At the same time, the groups said they would support an even bigger tax increase -- half a buck per pack -- if the extra dime was set aside for anti-tobacco efforts.


The health groups are angry at McGreevey for slashing two-thirds of the $30 million budget for programs aimed at keeping kids from getting into the habit of smoking, at the same time he is proposing to increase cigarette taxes and borrow more than $1 billion against future proceeds from a settlement with the tobacco industry.

"It's the first time in our history we are opposing a tobacco tax increase," said Larry Downs, director of New Jersey Breathes, representing about 50 public health organizations such as the American Cancer Society and the New Jersey Medical Society. "But raising the tax 40 cents merely for the purpose of balancing the budget is not a proposition we can support."


The Star-Ledger



[This message has been edited by John L (edited 02-22-2003).]

ROFLMAO... So they say unless you tax that smoker to put the money in my pocket and no others then I'm not going to support you taxing them at all.

It just doesn't get any more insane than that.

Heh-heh. I just LOVE it when the antis show their REAL motives, which are to line their own pockets.

Well, when it comes to a money fight between the legislators and the antis, the antis don't stand a chance, despite all their chicanery and blackmail tactics.

No, lockjaw ... it doesn't get anymore ... of a self-interest than that. They are unwilling to support a cigarette tax increase they have always claimed in itself ... reduces smoking, regardless of what purpose it's spent on .... "raising prices reduces smoking" unless they get money from any increased tax.

Their position is quite logical if their primary motive is to make money and not reduce smoking. It's only insane if it were the other way around.

So they have put themselves in the dubious position of being judged heartless money grubbers ... or insane. It's little wonder they have never opposed an increase in their history ... it's not a position you want to put yourself in ... which means, they are very desperate. That 30 million cut deeply into the "welfare for anti-smokers" job program.

Let's see ... insane or money grubber ... money grubber or insane ... insane or money grubber .... hmmmmmmmm ... what a tough choice.



[This message has been edited by John L (edited 02-22-2003).]

Oh, the sheer greed!
How moral and ethical!
Yeah, right.
Health, my ass!

From the National Post in Canada:

Smuggling and tobacco taxes:
=============================
"Harsh words between tobacco executives and government officials are nothing new in Canada. For the past two decades, the Canadian government has sought to curb smoking through an ever-increasing series of advertising limits, explicit health warnings on packaging, and taxes.

The issue last came to a head in 1993, when a government study estimated that 40% of the cigarettes sold in Canada were illegally smuggled and distributed on the black market to avoid taxes.

It was widely believed at the time that Canadian tobacco companies were selling large volumes of product into the United States, where taxes are much lower, with the full knowledge that the cigarettes were being immediately smuggled back into Canada on the black market.

To crack down on the problem the Liberal government slashed domestic tobacco taxes in 1994, and sharply increased export duties.

But cigarette taxes have slowly risen over the past nine years, and with last June's increase in both federal and provincial taxes, cigarette prices are now higher in most parts of the country than they were at the height of the smuggling problem in 1993.

Analysts said smokers shouldn't expect the government to start rolling back taxes again this time. They were assailed by anti-smoking groups in 1994 and no longer face the same pressure to act as they did then, they said."

The anti's never cease to perplex me with their anti-logic. Man, talk about cutting your nose off to spite your face.