Right off the bat, thanks to Matt at Red Hampshire for reminding me about Ken Wyler’s bill to cut the cigarette tax by $0.10 cents per pack. (HB 156) I’ve been queuing up a post on this having written about it often and what better time than now to unload it.
First the basics. Wyler thinks cutting the tax by a buck a carton will actually increase revenue by attracting more out of state traffic. Ken is correct. A larger cut would be better, but I guess we can crawl before we walk. And with that in mind, lets review why it will raise more revenue. And I’m not even going to have to go back very far for a decent flashback.