It’s apparently Tobacco Tuesday at the Statehouse.
The Coalition for a Tobacco Free Vermont held a press conference this morning to push legislation to raise taxes on a pack of cigarettes by $1. The tax is now $2.24 per pack.
The effort to raise tobacco taxes comes as Vermont’s Tobacco Control Program is facing a $2.1 million (nearly 50 percent) cut in Gov. Peter Shumlin’s proposed budget, according to the coalition.
Also on the tobacco front today: Lawmakers are pushing two bills to ban smoking in cars where there are kids. They’re scheduled to present the bills to a House committee this afternoon.
Shumlin said he doesn’t support the new tobacco tax, though he wouldn’t say whether he would veto a bill if it passed the Legislature.
It would hurt Vermont businesses that benefit from New York’s high tobacco tax, he said.
He also isn’t buying the notion that a $1 tobacco tax would bring $10.2 million to state coffers as advocates claim.
“Anybody who thinks they’re going to get $10 million by raising the tax $1 is smoking something other than tobacco,” Shumlin said.
- Thatcher Moats
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