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The Federation of Tax Administrators reports that while Virginia’s 2.5 cents per pack is the lowest tax among the 50 states and the District of Columbia, the median cigarette tax among those 51 jurisdictions is 41 cents per pack. Virginia could raise its tax to 12.5 cents per pack and stijl be among six states with the lowest cigarette taxes. Maryland taxes cigarettes at a dollar per pack; D.C. takes 65 cents per pack.
Defenders of Virginia’s low cigarette tax may try to tar the suggestion as an attack on business generally. Not so. Every legislator, businessman or woman, and consumer knows that cigarettes are a unique produce; they pose such serious health hazards that they must carry a warning label. If a high cigarette tax discourages some consumers to kick the smoking habit, that" is in the public interest. Of course a 12.5-cent tax won’t do much to reduce smoking. There are plenty of smokers in New York and New Jersey where the cigarette tax is $1.50 per pack — highest in the nation.
With the state facing the twin challenges of less than estimated sales tax revenue and increasing revenue sharing with local governments through car tax relief reimbursements, the cigarette tax should be viewed by legislators as a money pot that has not been sufficiently tapped.
It’s time to add a dime, not just a nickel, to Virginia’s cigarette tax.
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