[WeLoveYpsi09]

In the new budget, she proposes raising cigarette taxes AGAIN, we already pay $1.75 on a pack of smokes, adding sales tax to vending machines (WTF?), adding a .1 tax bottled water, add taxes to all services like housekeeping, landscaping, janitorial, etc.

Maybe if she and the do not legislative body take the same "furlough" days that she is making state employees take.....we would have have to RAISE taxes again. This witch is getting on my nerves. What is your option?

[Tehspilly]

Keep on spending and make us pay for it. Thanks Grandmole.

People are leaving the state in a hurry, and it's as if they want them to.

[MTUCache]

Not to go too far off topic, but having just moved to Chicago I can tell you that Michigan is way behind the times on jacking taxes up this high.

I work downtown, so between state taxes, cook county taxes, city taxes, and taxes inside the "loop", a pack of cigs in the corner store of my building is upwards of $9. No joke.

But, in the end, it's more about how these dollars are being spent (or wasted) and what they're being spent on than it is about how they're being collected (or not being collected).

[jeanniepep]

It doesn't sound unreasonable to me. Cigarette prices are already crazy high, but hey - it's an optional expense. I pay a lot to drink beer, but I don't HAVE to do it, so I can't complain if they charge me more (haha, that's probably next). Actually didn't realize that services like housecleaning and landscaping weren't already taxed. That is actually kind of a bummer because it will affect businesses more than individuals (I can clean my own house, but I can't expect businesses to clean their own office buildings) and we need to keep businesses. Also add new businesses.

I was wondering if the hike on bottled water was due to making them returnable? I know this was discussed a long time ago (how pop/beer bottles are returnable but water bottles are land-fillable) but I didn't hear whether anything happened with that. Frankly they are a pox upon the land - the plastic leaches cancer-causing chemicals into the water, then the bottles make the landfills bigger. But, that's just my opinion, man.

[JGatti]

I was on the phone with my brother the other day who lives in Arizona. He told me they just raised or are about to raise their sales tax to almost 10%. WOW!

[RedJacket]

Wisconsin just raised cigarette taxes another 75 cents a pack. Its now up to $2.72.

Buy over the internet.

[Tehspilly]

Originally Posted by MTUCache

Not to go too far off topic, but having just moved to Chicago I can tell you that Michigan is way behind the times on jacking taxes up this high.

I work downtown, so between state taxes, cook county taxes, city taxes, and taxes inside the "loop", a pack of cigs in the corner store of my building is upwards of $9. No joke.

That's just Chicago I'm sure. I know they aren't that much in the rest of Illinois. They cost $10 a pack in NYC, but once I take the train back to Long Island they're only $6.

And to the person who said they pay a lot to drink beer, give a me a break dude. I love beer as much as the next guy, but the beer tax here is NOTHING compared to the cigarette tax.

There's a lot of optional things they could tax, they tax cigs because they know damn well we'll pay it. It's like taking advantage of peoples addictions. If they thought, "Well hmm, If we raise the tax more people will quit and we won't make much off of that." They wouldn't do it.

Michigans cigarettes are outrageously expensive compared to most states. Hell in California they're cheaper.

[Wingnatic]

I don't know why cigarette taxes is always the '' go to '' fix lol I read not very long ago that the last time beer taxes were changed was like 50 years ago when it was lowered . I think that issue was recently raised where it was declined to raise taxes on beer . Instead the Governor favors allowing bars to have last call at 4 a.m. and closing at 4:30 a.m. , same goes for beer/wine/liquor stores , and allow the sale of alcohol at 8 a.m. on Sunday's vs noon currently . Umm this will no doubt raise our catastrophic fee we pay per year per car for people that need lifelong care after a traffic accident , no doubt the result of drunk drivers

[preferentialtreatment]

So the goverment goes after regular people,but not the super wealthy??
So Obama expects from the people to invent a new industry to save this country and earn himself a spot as the greatest leader?
Some measures are common sense,but this goverment is not doing what it should do.This is selective justice.Raising taxes on smoking is ok,unless you plan to continue to kill yourself with your own hands.

[magellan]

Originally Posted by Tehspilly

That's just Chicago I'm sure. I know they aren't that much in the rest of Illinois. They cost $10 a pack in NYC, but once I take the train back to Long Island they're only $6.

And to the person who said they pay a lot to drink beer, give a me a break dude. I love beer as much as the next guy, but the beer tax here is NOTHING compared to the cigarette tax.

There's a lot of optional things they could tax, they tax cigs because they know damn well we'll pay it. It's like taking advantage of peoples addictions. If they thought, "Well hmm, If we raise the tax more people will quit and we won't make much off of that." They wouldn't do it.

Michigans cigarettes are outrageously expensive compared to most states. Hell in California they're cheaper.

Cigarette taxes are one of the easiest to get an exemption for.