by Yelena Manderberg
 On June 3rd, 2008, New York state taxes on cigarettes increased to $2.75 per pack – making a pack of cigarettes nearly $9 each, the highest in the nation.
Prices like this for cigarettes have smokers scrambling to find cheaper sources of cigarettes. Many buy cigarettes from other states or Indian reservations where it is much cheaper, many have started buying tobacco and rolling their own cigarettes – which are unfiltered and much worse health-wise than anything store bought.
The effect will be “the creation of a black market for a legal product,” says Robert Levy, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute.
The government says that the tax increase is a win for New York. Health wise, it is supposed to reduce tobacco use, save lives and keep children from starting to smoke. Financially the tax is supposed to raise revenue to help alleviate budget shortfalls.
According to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, studies show that every 10% increase in the price of cigarettes reduces youth smoking by 7% and overall consumption of tobacco products by 4%. They expect the tax to prevent more than 243,000 New York kids from smoking, cause more than 140,000 New York smokers to quit; produce more than $5 billion in long-term health care savings, and raise about $436 million a year in new state revenue.
The state Smoker Quitline has been getting quadruple the phone calls, going from 2,000 calls a week to 10,000. The number of requests for free nicotine replacement therapy kits also rose, going from a measly 1,700 to 7,900 the week the tax was passed.
However, many are pessimistic on the number of people who will actually quit cigarettes. “Not everyone that tries, quits,” said New York Health Commissioner Dr. Richard Daines.
NYC Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment (NYC C.L.A.S.H.) is an extreme example of New Yorkers’ objections to anti-smoking laws.
They urge the public to boycott buying cigarettes in New York, their mission statement being “this is the present day version of the Boston Tea Party. We will NOT throw our tea in the sea, thereby ceding to their demands to give up a perfectly legal behavior, but we will no longer support their addiction to tobacco money either.” They also raise the question, “if I can’t smoke in public, why should I pay the public’s taxes?”
While that is an extreme example, many New Yorkers agree that the new tax is extreme. Most teenagers and young adults have begun trying to find new sources to get their nicotine fix, instead of quitting like the government hoped they would.
Many New Yorkers are also upset because they see the new tax as the government’s way of trying to dictate their personal habits. “It’s really about budgetary concerns. They camouflage it in health lingo because it sells better,” said Levy.
"No matter the goal, it's disgusting that any group would actually boast that coercive government - this time through the hammer of taxation - to beat a class of society enjoying a legal product into submission is 'successful'," says Audrey Silk, the head of NYC C.L.A.S.H.
It costs about $8.2 billion for the state to care for those with smoking related diseases. New York State will now be making more than enough to cover that. The New York Health Department just spent $83 million on an anti-smoking campaign, using everything from public service announcements and advertising to get the message across.
While health officials call this campaign a success, there are many businesses that suffer because of the tax increase.
We live in a city where there are at least five delis and convenience stores on each block. Their main revenue comes from tobacco. If there are less smokers, they get less business.
“The tax increase is only going to feed that epidemic,'' said Jim Calvin, president of the New York Association of Convenience Stores. “More and more smokers in New York state are going to abandon our stores that have to charge the tax and shift their purchases to places that don't charge the tax, most notably Native American stores, the Internet and bootleggers.”
There are both positive and negative aspects on each side of the argument.
While the tax hike is already in effect, we will have to wait and see whether it has had the desired effects. Until then, the debate will undoubtedly go on.
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