A pack of cigarettes will soon cost nearly $11 in New York City.
From CNNMoney.com:
The state legislature on Monday approved a bill adding an additional state tax of $1.60 to every pack sold, effective July 1. This bill, which was signed by Gov. David Paterson on Monday, will raise the state tax to $4.35 per pack. That makes the Empire State’s tax on smokes the highest in the nation.
New York City smokers pay an additional municipal tax of $1.50 per pack, for a current total tax of $4.25 per pack. That’s the highest state-local tax whammy in the country, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Chicago is the runner-up, at $3.66 per pack.
This new tax increase means that smokers in the city will pay $5.85 per pack in taxes. This drives the average local price up to nearly $11 per pack, according to some estimates.
Maybe, however, even these taxes aren’t high enough. A SmartMoney story offers some stats indicating that the health problems caused by smoking actually amount to over $7 per pack:
A decade ago, the World Bank put the health-care costs associated with tobacco use at 1.1% of gross domestic product in rich countries, or about one out of every $15 the U.S. spends on health care. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control estimates that smoking-related health problems cost more than $7 per cigarette pack sold in the U.S.