I know some California smokers who are ALREADY struggling to get by. Ironically, they're liberals.
There's nothing like keeping a bunch of your people ADDICTED to something (cigarettes remain legal in California), but beating the hell out of them for it. Nice.
Be sure to note the last two paragraphs I've excerpted, below. The smokers, you see, are not the only addicts in California.
A $1 Cigarette Tax Starts a $47 Million Brawl in California
By ADAM NAGOURNEY
Published: June 3, 2012
LOS ANGELES — California has some of the toughest antismoking laws in the country — it is illegal, in some places, to smoke in your own apartment — and boasts the second-lowest per capita smoking rate in the 50 states. But for all the disdain toward smoking, it has been 14 years since California raised its cigarette tax, a tribute to the power of the tobacco industry here and the waning of this state’s antitobacco dominance.
That may be about to change. An array of health and anticancer groups has rallied behind a ballot initiative to impose a new $1-a-pack cigarette tax to finance cancer research. And that has provoked a $47 million storm of advertisements, overwhelmingly financed by the tobacco industry, which is outspending proponents by nearly four to one to defeat the biggest threat it has faced in California in more than a decade.
An independent poll conducted May 14 to 20 signaled the power of the assault: while a majority of voters in California, where the average price of cigarettes is $5.71 a pack, say they still support Proposition 29, as it is known, the percentage has dropped markedly since the campaign began, according to the poll by the Public Policy Institute of California.
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The tax, which would raise an estimated $735 million, is being voted on as California is reeling from a new wave of bad budget news. Gov. Jerry Brown announced last month that the state was facing a deficit of $16 billion, and he proposed a round of severe spending cuts to deal with it.
But none of the $735 million would go to close the deficit.
More: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/04/us/in-california-a-battle-over-a-plan-for-1-a-pack-cigarette-tax.html?_r=1&hp
Gold is $1,581/oz today. When it hits $2,000, it will be up 26.5%. Let's see how long that takes. - De 3/11/2013 - ANSWER: 7 Years, 5 Months
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