one of the comments:
snip:
Did this moron forget Ovomitcare was passed without ONE rep vote? Meaning it was shoved down our throats and it's the biggest tax increase in the history of America. And the fool forgets the dems have been in control since 2006, until now...stop blaming the repukes for the demons mistakes... repukes make enough all by themselves.
You can thank people like Reid f. and they claim to care about the "poor". this is an older study for New York but it always APPLIES to ANY taxes they raise for the "good of the people"...
snip; State-funded study: Cigarette tax hurts New York’s poor most
12:14 AM 09/22/2012
A study conducted on behalf of the New York State Department of Health has revealed that cigarette taxes hurt the poorest New Yorkers the most.
Low-income smokers, defined as individuals in households making less than $30,000 a year, spent an average of 23.6 percent of the annual household income on cigarettes. That number is up from 11.6 percent in 2003-2004 and in spite of increasing cigarette taxes imposed by the state and city governments.
By comparison, smokers in households making over $60,000 a year, spent an average of 2.2 percent of their household income on cigarettes.
At $4.35 per pack of 20, New York has the highest state cigarette tax in the country. But the tax on a pack can cost up to $6.46 in the state, when combined with the $0.61 state sales tax and additional city excise tax. New York City, for instance, tacks on $1.50 per pack.
The prevalence of smoking is directly correlated with income level, the study found. 24.3 percent of low-income New Yorkers smoke some days or most days. The study shows no decline in smoking among low-income smokers, despite tax increases since 2003, meaning that the poor bear a disproportionate tax burden.
“This is such a shockingly high proportionate of their income,” said Dr. Matthew Farrelly, the study’s author, in a phone interview with The Daily Caller. “And yet at the same time, New York has cut funding for tobacco control programs by half.”