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11:09 a.m. • 2-11-12

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Higher Cigarette, Alcohol Taxes Proposed


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Drinkers and smokers would have to pay more for their pasttimes if two bills are approved by the General Assembly.

Senate Bill 1208, sponsored by Sen. Tony Rand, D-Cumberland, calls for raising the tax on each pack of cigarettes by 5 cents. The added revenue would go toward building a new cancer center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Lawmakers raised cigarette taxes from 5 cents to 30 cents a pack two years ago.

Senate Bill 1367, sponsored by Sen. Larry Shaw, D-Cumberland, calls for raising the excise tax on beer, wine and liquor to fund education programs designed to reduce underage drinking.

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I do not know about everyone else but I think its time to get rid of the people who make a living out of getting elective and forgetting about the people that but them there. Remenber they work for us it not the other way around. If I was in office I would think of what is the problem we see every day. Keeping a job, feeding our family and paying rising taxes, are the people in Raleigh stupid or just do not care?

What is it now? Lets see smoking, drinking, tax, tax tax. But why? Why not tax people who are fat, or people who are slim. Why not people that are black, white, yellow or green. Lets tax anything that we can convince the majored that something is wrong with these people. But better yet why not tax the hospitals that charge 800.00 per night for a room, smaller then a closet.

................................................. Gee! Go figure!

Government spends a fortune to fight against LEGAL stuff

reduces the sales

then increase taxes to make up for LOST REVENUE!

Thank Goodness For FREEDOM!

.................................................

Sorry last comment lost it's direction. Point is neither alcohol or cigarettes are necessarily bad. It is the people using them. Both make you stink. Alcohol does alter your state of mind more but doesn't make you do things. As for increasing taxes on them, that would suck. I don't smoke but do drink occasionally. I like a good German beer with my steak, a glass of wine with a great Italian dish and a good Whiskey on ice for a night of watching a long movie. I agree with the comment on taxing Western Union and the like transactions where the money goes out of the US. I used to work at a grocery store and Mexicans (yes from Mexico) would come in and send 4 and 5 THOUSAND dollars at a time to Mexico. Tax the illegals who don't pay income tax! Finally...Increasing the amount I pay for alcohol may suck, but hey, if I drink a couple of beers I won't really care anymore.

Just a comment with regard to statements that alcohol makes people mean. Alcohol doesn't make people do anything, it is already in that person to do the mean or unpleasant things. Police do not get called out because of alcohol, they get called because an idiot who thought they were mentally competent enough to handle a couple of drinks wasn't and now he/she is beating there wife/friend. For cigarettes, smoking doesn't cause cancer! People who are genetically predisposed to getting cancer and smoke get cancer and blame it on the cigarettes. I know plenty of 80 and 90 year old people who have been smoking since they could hold the cigarette and light it themselves and they don't have cancer. I read in the paper the other day that the process of frying potatoes to make "french fries" releases a chemical from the potato that has caused cancer in rats. Let the rampage of lawsuits begin for cancer causing Oreidas!

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