UNM students said a 75 cent tax increase on cigarettes won’t be driving them to Nicorette any time soon.
The state legislature passed a 75 cent increase to the current 91 cent cigarette tax last week, bringing the overall tax to a $1.61 per pack. However, smokers say the increase will not deter them from lighting-up.
“People pay out the nose for heroin,” UNM sophomore Jesse Clifton said. “I think an addiction is an addiction.”
Graduate student Sophia Hammett said imposing the cigarette tax is a way to tax a population that is least likely to resist and is often a more viable option for legislators than other tax increases.
“It is more ‘moral’ to raise a sin tax than acknowledge that we’re in a deficit,” Hammett said. “And either raise taxes across the board or make painful cuts.”
The state will be raising a projected $33 million per year in cigarette taxes.
Pug Burge, head of UNM’s Smoke-Free Environment Committee, said the cigarette tax is trying to make it financially uncomfortable for smokers, so they may consider quitting.
“I think those that have been smoking for years and years probably won’t quit,” she said. “I am hoping that younger people who are on the borderline will use this as an opportunity to stop smoking.”
Historically, cigarette tax increases have resulted in reduced sales. According to its quarterly reports, Philip Morris USA, which sells cigarette brands Marlboro, Parliament and Virginia Slims, saw a 10.5 percent decrease in 2009 domestic cigarette shipments after federal law increased cigarette taxes by 62 cents in April 2009,
Hammett said the federal increase did not affect her habit, and she does not expect the state increase to have a bigger impact.
“That didn’t slow me down,” she said. “I do not imagine that another 75 cents will hurt me that much.”
New Mexico is not the only state that has forced smokers to pay more as it tries to balance its budget. Last year, 16 states increased their cigarette taxes, according to StateLine.org.
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Major tobacco-producing states generally charge less, while the rest of the nation charges more. Currently, 14 states tax cigarettes by $2 or more.
Rhode Island has the highest cigarette tax at $3.46 per pack, while South Carolina only taxes cigarettes 7 cents, according the American Lung Association.
Clifton said New Mexico’s average price of about $4.82 per pack is not bad in comparison to some other states.
“I heard in New Jersey they’re almost $10 a pack,” he said. “But people still smoke in New Jersey.”
Freshman Joshua Torres said an extra 75-cents-or-so a week was not enough to get him to quit.
“Definitely not,” he said. “I’ll just donate more plasma, I guess.”
Burge said that since the smoking ban on campus was enacted in August 2009, the UNM health centers have seen more students, faculty and staff expressing interest in quitting.
“I am hoping, with the cost of cigarettes going up, that we will see more people trying to quit,” she said.
