DOYLE WILL PROPOSE CIGARETTE TAX HIKE
Tuesday, February 17th, 2009 -- 11:22 AM
Gov. Jim Doyle will lay out his plans for the state budget in an address at 7 p.m. tonight.Sources say he will call for a 75-cent increase in the state tax on a pack of cigarettes ? a change that would raise the state tax on smokers to $2.52 per pack.
If approved by the Legislature, the increase would mean that the state tax on a pack of cigarettes would have tripled in the six years that the two-term Democratic governor has been in office ? from 77-cents to $2.52. The $1 per pack increase ? from 77-cents to $1.77 ? approved two years ago cost smokers about $110 million more a year, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.
A 75-cent increase in the state tax would follow a 62-cent increase per pack in the federal tax, which was raised to pay for health-care programs for children.
Tonight, Doyle will also again call for a ban on smoking in workplaces statewide, including restaurants and taverns. The governor's push for a similar smoking ban two years ago never got a vote in either the Assembly or Senate, but some form of it is expected to pass the Legislature this session.
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