11 février 2009
Achat cigarettes
04 juin 2008
New York Smokers Cross the Line for Cheaper Cigarettes
A new cigarette tax in
New York has smokers flocking across the border to Pennsylvania.
On any day it's not hard
to find New York license plates in Great Bend Township just a few miles across
the border from the Empire State.
On this day there was car
after car after car of cigarette smokers who are now coming to Pennsylvania to
buy their favorite pack.
It comes after New York
hiked its tax on cigarettes an additional $1.25 a pack.
Stanley Potter drove 13 miles
"Because they went
up a buck and a quarter up there in New York. The taxes are outrageous! I'm not
going to pay $6.50 for a pack of cigarettes anymore," Potter said.
His pack of Marlboros is
less than $5 at Smokin' Joe's in Great Bend Township.
Next door, at Tobacco
Junction, Bob Auble noticed a lot of New Yorkers coming in to buy smokes, even
before the new tax.
"They were coming in
buying two or three cartons at a time. It's going to be even worse now,"
Auble said.
New York's new cigarette
tax is considered the highest in the nation.
Smokers there now pay $2.75 a pack just in taxes alone. It's even worse in New
York City, which has it's own tax on cigarettes. Smokes in the Big Apple could
now cost more than $10 a pack.
Dave Homza of Kirkwood
sums up his reaction. "I'm going to try to quit. It's easier said than to
be done," Homza said. He's not alone.
The Empire State's health
commissioner expects 140,000 New Yorkers to quit smoking because of the
increase.
Stanley Potter knows he
won't be one of them. "Either that or quit smoking. I'd rather just come
down here, you know," Potter added.
Now the bad news for
smokers here in Pennsylvania.
There's a proposal in
Harrisburg this year to hike Pennsylvania's cigarette tax an extra 10-cents per
pack to help pay for expanded health care coverage.