Mississippi - This newspaper has been an unwavering advocate of raising the cigarette tax for several years. The only question in our mind has been how much the increase should be.
Mississippi, with the third lowest cigarette tax in the nation, trails the national average by about a buck a pack. Some in the Legislature have advocated kicking it up by that amount.
Another school of thought - one supported by Gov. Haley Barbour's tax study group - is to keep the tax in line with that of neighboring states, so that smokers aren't enticed to cross state lines to buy their cigarettes and take their tax money with them. With that in mind, the tax study group has settled on a more modest increase to 50 cents a pack. More...
Mississippi, with the third lowest cigarette tax in the nation, trails the national average by about a buck a pack. Some in the Legislature have advocated kicking it up by that amount.
Another school of thought - one supported by Gov. Haley Barbour's tax study group - is to keep the tax in line with that of neighboring states, so that smokers aren't enticed to cross state lines to buy their cigarettes and take their tax money with them. With that in mind, the tax study group has settled on a more modest increase to 50 cents a pack. More...
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