Tobacco tax hitting smokers hard this year
By JIMMY GALVAN

For those who are resolving to give up smoking, the state of Texas may have just given you the right reason to help you on your way.

A $1 cigarette tax per pack went into effect Jan. 1 may give smokers that right reason to quit now.

Sharon Guillory, manager of the Tobacco Barn in Jasper, says an increase in cigarette sales hit the store the days prior to Jan. 1.

“We saw a lot of people stocking up,” Guillory said. “People are complaining about the new tax and say they want to stop smoking but they are still buying up.”

According to tobacco companies, cigarettes can be frozen for six to eight months.

“We had one man come in and buy 20 cartons of cigarettes for almost $400 to avoid the tax,” Guillory said. “People are definitely starting to stock up.”

Cigarette packs are now costing $4.50. Now that the law is in effect, smokers that smoke a pack a day can expect to pay more than $50 a month in taxes alone.

Guillory said consumers could expect cigarettes to rise $10-12 a carton and smokeless tobacco products to rise four percent.

“The Legislature’s passage of a cigarette tax increase — the first in 16 years — is an historic vote to improve the health of Texans, especially the state’s children,” said Kirsten Voinis, spokesperson for Texans Investing in Healthy Families. “The cigarette tax is an acrossthe board win for Texas — and it will raise needed revenue, save lives and reduce the amount of taxpayer dollars spent on tobacco-related ailments through the Medicaid program.

The increase in cigarette taxes is a product of the sweeping changes the Texas Legislature brought on public school funding. In an effort to alleviate the state’s dependence on property taxes for school funding, state lawmakers passed the cigarette tax as a method to pay for public school funding.

The coalition believes the cigarette tax increase will convince 143,300 adult smokers to quit, decrease youth smoking by 18.8 percent and prevent 284,200 Texas children from ever starting to smoke.

And while sales rose prior to Jan. 1, Guillory said business has slowed a bit since the new tax went into effect.