This is essentially a cigarette tax, though cigarettes have decades of undisputed research that they directly kill people.
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Expect an even greater fall for 2010 as new cigarette tax and rising unemployment make smoking less affordable.
Minnesota lawmakers also approved an increase in the cigarette tax and an elimination of certain corporate exemptions as part of the package.
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By saving money in this way, and by raising the cigarette tax, Dr Kitzhaber has extended Medicaid to more of the poor.
Republican Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi --- a former tobacco lobbyist -- also recently approved a 277 percent hike on his state's cigarette tax.
Meanwhile, Clinton plans to make a strong statement today in support of the 20-cent-a-pack cigarette tax increase included in the Senate version of the budget.
In 2004, Perry proposed replacing some school property levies with a basket of other taxes, including sales taxes, a higher cigarette tax, and an increased payroll tax.
That is plotting cigarette tax revenue as a percentage of GDP (vertical axis) against the percentage of the pricer of a packet of cigarettes that is tax (horizontal axis).
Researchers estimate that in China, where smoking rates are rising quickly, a 10% increase in cigarette tax would cut consumption by 5% and increase revenues by 5%, enough to finance essential health care for a third of China's poorest 100m people.
Texas has no income tax and in 2006, Perry cut real estate taxes (at the same time he raised cigarette taxes and implemented a margins tax on businesses).
Ray Story, chief executive of the Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette Association, warned that tax rises on e-cigarettes would only benefit tobacco companies, to the detriment of public health.
Kennedy suggested the tax and resulting higher cigarette prices would also help discourage under-age smoking, and expressed optimism that his Senate colleagues will get behind the idea.
This compares to a P2.7 excise tax on low-priced cigarette until only last year.
According to data from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, cigarette shipments declined 4.5% in 2010.
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States keep raising cigarette taxes, too, but all it does is discourage consumption and lowers tax revenues.
Chief Justice Roberts raised the popular argument that the government already assesses cigarette taxes as a financial disincentive to smoking, and he likened that to a tax incentive to purchase health insurance.
With no excise tax announcements happening or pending in the near term, the decline in cigarette sales has slowed and the trend is expected to continue unless the market is disrupted by new excise duties.
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Those economic challenges are in addition to the tax hikes, smoking bans, health concerns and social stigma that have made the cigarette business tougher.
Smokers face tax increases, bans, health concerns and social stigma worldwide, but the effect of those on cigarette demand generally is less stark outside the United States.
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