Cigarette Tax

There's a tempting carrot being dangled tantalizingly in front of state legislators by Gov. William Donald Schaefer: $70 million worth of new aid for local schools and local government programs. The temptation, though, comes with a catch. To get this money, lawmakers must raise the tobacco tax.Compounding their problem is that there is precious little in the governor's $13.5 billion budget that can be cut to make way for this package of goodies, which includes $25 million for schools (poverty grants, expansion of pre-kindergarten classes, money to help non-English-speaking students)

As Gov.Martin O'Malleysigns into law the revenue measure passed during the recent special session, most of the attention will be on the income tax changes in the bill. Also in the new law will be an historic and life-saving increase in our state's tax on little cigars and smokeless tobacco. Thanks to several increases in our cigarette tax over the past decade, we have dramatically reduced cigarette smoking in Maryland, especially among teens, saving tens of thousands of lives. But, because we did not increase the tax on little cigars and smokeless tobacco during this time, youth use of some of these deadly products actually increased, according to a study done by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

The General Assembly's speedy embrace of Gov. Martin O'Malley's income tax increases this week cleaned up a political mess in Annapolis, but the rate hikes could come back to haunt the Democrat if he seeks national office when his time in the governor's mansion is up. O'Malley's tax package, which won final approval from the Democratic legislature on Wednesday, will give Maryland's top earners the seventh-highest income tax rate in the country....

The General Assembly's speedy embrace of Gov. Martin O'Malley's income tax increases this week cleaned up a political mess in Annapolis, but the rate hikes could come back to haunt the Democrat if he seeks national office when his time in the governor's mansion is up. O'Malley's tax package, which won final approval from the Democratic legislature on Wednesday, will give Maryland's top earners the seventh-highest income tax rate in the country....

C ontrary to Jay Hancock's January 27 column, Maryland's recently enacted $1-per-pack cigarette tax increase has been a budgetary and public health success for which Gov. Martin O'Malley and the General Assembly should be proud. In the year after it took effect on Jan. 1, 2008, the cigarette tax increase brought $144 million in additional funds into the state coffers, which have helped to fund Maryland's recent health care expansion. This expansion brought health care coverage to more than 52,000 Marylanders and brought Maryland from 44th to 16th in the nation in health care coverage for adults.

In 2007, Gov. Martin O'Malley and the Maryland General Assembly enacted a number of tax increases designed to close the state's budget deficit. As this year's General Assembly session illustrates, these tax hikes did not fix the state's spending problems. Instead, they created problems for many Marylanders. For instance, the cigarette tax is driving smokers to purchase their cigarettes in other states, hurting local businesses and depriving the state of tax revenue. A cigarette tax hike may be popular with politicians and public health advocates, but Marylanders are doing all they can to avoid it. Supporters in 2007 believed cigarette tax hikes would increase state revenue and reduce smoking.

Mickey Steinberg's motto must be "you can never have too much of a good thing." How else to explain his proposed $2 a pack tax on cigarettes? It would raise an astounding $500 million (till consumption falls) by increasing the current tax six-fold. It would make Maryland's tax three times higher than anywhere else in the country.And it has absolutely no chance of winning legislative approval in Annapolis.Mr. Steinberg, who is the state's lieutenant governor, stunned State House officials with his proposal.

House Speaker Casper R. Taylor Jr. said last night that he will introduce a bill to raise Maryland's cigarette tax by 34 cents a pack, with half of the money dedicated to public schools. But Taylor said the $50 million for education would not be intended to serve as a down payment on recommendations from the Thornton Commission, which has called for state support to public schools to increase by $1.1 billion annually over the next five years. "It would bridge the gap for one year until we can get to the Thornton-formula funding next year," Taylor said of the bill, which he hopes to introduce early next week.

Kicking off a grass-roots campaign for a $1 increase in the state cigarette tax, Howard County activists employed a new weapon yesterday in their battle against the tobacco industry: children.About 50 Wilde Lake High School students -- joined by Democratic County Councilman Guy J. Guzzone, and Bev Wilhide, an assistant to County Executive James N. Robey -- urged members of the General Assembly to pass tax-increase legislation."All of us are all too aware that teen smoking is a problem in Columbia, Howard County, Maryland, and the country," said Rebecca Gifford, a senior at the school and a representative of the Maryland Association of Student Councils' executive board.

All but one Carroll County legislator opposed a 25-cent cigarette tax proposed yesterday by Gov. William Donald Schaefer that could generate almost $900,000 for the county.Del. Lawrence A. LaMotte, D-Carroll-Baltimore County, said he would support the tax.Sen. Larry E. Haines, R-Carroll-Baltimore County, said he would support the proposal only if it included financial assistance for tobacco farmers.In his noon State of the State address in the House chambers, Governor Schaefer said the new tax would generate $70 million to be used for health, education, public safety and other programs.

A special session of the legislature is definitely needed to prevent the disastrous "doomsday budget" from taking effect - but it is also needed to enact the life-saving tobacco tax increase, which like the proposed income tax increase failed to gain final General Assembly approval by midnight on April 9. The House and Senate revenue conferees had agreed that the tax on little cigars should be increased from its very low present rate of 15 percent...

It seems that hardly a month goes by that I'm not hearing of great new ideas from Annapolis on how to raise new revenue with higher taxes. Gas tax, cigarette tax, flush tax, and on and on. The citizens of this state have nothing left to give. What I never seem to hear from anyone in state government is how they are going to trim costs, for example, by eliminating individuals or departments that have long outlived their usefulness. One obvious candidate would be the Maryland Transportation Authority Police.

In his Commentary disparaging both Maryland's life-saving one dollar per pack tobacco tax increase enacted in 2008 and our proposed dime a drink alcohol tax increase ("Alcohol tax: Haven't we been here before?" Aug. 13), Mark Kilmer left out some very important facts. Most importantly, he omitted the fact that the tobacco tax increase resulted in 74 million fewer packs of cigarettes being sold in our state, which helped to give Maryland the sixth lowest smoking rate in the country. This saves tens of thousands of lives from preventable tobacco caused illness and death, and saves us all billions of dollars in health care costs.

The Health Care for All Coalition is once again leading the charge to raise Marylanders' taxes to expand the state's government health care program, Medicaid. I'm reminded of what the White Queen said in "Through the Looking Glass": "It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards. " I guess my memory must be pretty poor, because I can't help but remember that we've heard this idea before. In 2007, Health Care for All pushed through a cigarette tax increase that was supposed to fund an expansion of Medicaid.

T ax Revenue Up in Smoke In 2007, Gov. Martin O'Malley and the Maryland General Assembly enacted a number of tax increases designed to close the state's budget deficit. As this year's General Assembly session illustrates, these tax hikes did not fix the state's spending problems. Instead, they created problems for many Marylanders. For instance, the cigarette tax is driving smokers to purchase their cigarettes in other states, hurting local businesses and depriving the state of tax revenue.

In 2007, Gov. Martin O'Malley and the Maryland General Assembly enacted a number of tax increases designed to close the state's budget deficit. As this year's General Assembly session illustrates, these tax hikes did not fix the state's spending problems. Instead, they created problems for many Marylanders. For instance, the cigarette tax is driving smokers to purchase their cigarettes in other states, hurting local businesses and depriving the state of tax revenue. A cigarette tax hike may be popular with politicians and public health advocates, but Marylanders are doing all they can to avoid it. Supporters in 2007 believed cigarette tax hikes would increase state revenue and reduce smoking.

Standing in front of a cemetery, Lt. Gov. Melvin A. "Mickey" Steinberg proposed yesterday raising Maryland's cigarette tax to $2 a pack as a deterrent to smoking.Mr. Steinberg then lashed out at his boss, Gov. William Donald Schaefer, criticizing Mr. Schaefer's plan for a quarter-a-pack increase as nothing more than an attempt to increase government spending."Two dollars would deter smoking; 25 cents will not," said Mr. Steinberg, a Democratic candidate for governor, as he held up a black cigarette pack emblazoned with a skull and crossbones.

Contrary to Jay Hancock's January 27 column, Maryland's recently enacted $1-per-pack cigarette tax increase has been a budgetary and public health success for which Gov. Martin O'Malley and the General Assembly should be proud. In the year after it took effect on Jan. 1, 2008, the cigarette tax increase brought $144 million in additional funds into the state coffers, which have helped to fund Maryland's recent health care expansion. This expansion brought health care coverage to more than 52,000 Marylanders and brought Maryland from 44th to 16th in the nation in health care coverage for adults.