FreedomWorks Vermont recently sent out an email alert regarding the recent proposed tax hike on cigarettes. The Vermont legislature is currently considering a tobacco tax hike under the guise that it will “pay for health care reform.”
It is believed that this proposed increase is nothing more than the “bait” in a bait and switch tactic designed to put Vermont on an irreversible path toward government-run, taxpayer funded health care.
Some facts Vermonters need to know about tobacco taxes:
- This tax (H.663/S.287) would increase the cost of cigarettes by 60 cents to $1.79 per pack.
- Cigarette taxes are regressive, hitting the poor hardest.
- Cigarette taxes cause revenue to leave the state.
- Cigarette tax increases are notorious for pushing customers into the black market, which hurts small business owners from grocers to restaurateurs.
- UVM economist Art Woolf calculated that Vermont border counties already lost $432 million in retail sales – and Vermonters have 3,120 fewer jobs — in 2002 alone because of taxes and regulations. “Those jobs and sales went to New Hampshire…,” according to Wolf.
Please click here for the full email. They also have a petition you can sign.