Friday, March 1, 2013

Rahmaland CigaretteTax Increases by $1 a Pack

Taxes on cigarettes sold in Cook County, Illinois which includes Chicago, are going up by one dollar a pack.

The price of a pack of cigarettes could be near $11 in Chicago, $6.67 of which is city, county and state taxes.

LOL, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle says the tax, which takes effect Friday, is expected to generate more than $25 million annually.

The people of Cook County will soon learn what a black market looks like. Preckwinkle seems to already know its coming. She says the county Revenue Department will hire more staff to help stop tobacco smuggling and tax evasion.

Brilliant, expand the state by increasing taxes and then hire more staff to enforce the expansion. Thi somehow doesn't sound like a move in the direction of freedom.

7 comments:

  1. Rahmaland and this doofus Preckwinkle (Really, Preckwinkle?) need to familiarize themselves with the term "black market," because they're doing a bang-up job of creating one for cigarettes.

    While they're at it, they might want to glance at the Laffer Curve. Believe it or not, raising a tax on something doesn't mean revenue will automatically increase.

    Taxation is wealth destruction. It's also destroying our freedoms. When are people going to stop electing these clowns?

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    1. While I agree that taxation can lead to wealth destruction, there has to be *some* taxation. Otherwise there would be no funding for federal programs and we would have an anarchical society. In the particular example of cigarette taxation I believe there is an additional motive behind increased taxation. This is to try and reduce tobacco usage, with the concomitant effect of improving the health of the nation. This in turn would reduce medical bills and lead to less illness-related time off work, which in turn would raise tax revenues from wages. It would be interesting to know if there was an optimal taxation level for tobacco products which evaluates the overall effect of the taxation

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    2. What's wrong with having anarchical society? The loss of the militarized bankster parasite class? How awful.

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  2. Coming soon to Rahmaland: the re-definition of 'smuggling' and 'tax evasion' to mean the purchase of any item outside the county when the product is available for purchase from a store within the county.
    Supermarkets and businesses will be tasked with checking the residence of all shoppers, and withholding appropriate taxes. (Soon after, non-Cooke County residents will have to self-report about any items purchased and brought into the county.) Failure of stores to do so and to report on customers will result in steep fines for businesses. Random checkpoints will be established on roads entering Cook County to make sure no smuggling is taking place from surrounding counties.

    This is very reasonable and fair.

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    Replies
    1. Hey, it worked for Sudafed. I just KNOW the meth usage rates have plummeted, right?

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  3. For anyone fortunate enough to live somewhere other than Illinois, to give an idea of how costly it is to live here, cigarettes are $10.05 and $6.67 of that cost is from taxes.

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  4. "Just go up to H*%&#d street by the train station, bro...buy your squares there. They're cheap as hell."

    ..some advice from one of my students. I will give him extra credit for his consumer education requirement.

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