Cigarette Taxes Go Up

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Apr 1, 2009 2:40PM

It's April 1 which means you're paying more for a pack of smokes. Starting today, a new tax hike on cigarettes imposed by the federal government ups the tax from $0.39/pack to $1.01/pack, meaning the cost of a pack of cigarettes in Chicago now stands at $9.36. But wait, smokers, there's more. Part of Governor Quinn's budget proposal would raise the state tax on a pack of cigarettes even further: by $0.50 this year and by another $0.50 next year, all to help pay for a backlog of Medicaid bills. Currently, according to the Tribune, a pack of cigarettes is still a bit cheaper in Cook County at around $8 a pack and $5 a pack in surrounding counties. Still, the high price isn't even the most expensive in the nation: that honor goes to (who else) New York, where smokers pay $3.76 total in taxes per pack, as opposed to places like South Carolina where the total tax per pack is $1.08. [Trib, CBS 2]