New York’s Legislature has voted to make the state the nation’s most expensive place to smoke, approving a tax hike that brings the price of cigarettes to about $9.20 a pack.
The Legislature may have also set the state on a course for — as one senator put it — a “clash of cultures” as it seeks to collect taxes on cigarettes sold by sovereign Indian tribes.
The Legislature on Monday approved Gov. David Paterson’s $1.60 increase in the state cigarette tax that’s now $2.75 per pack.
In New York City, which has its own $1.50 tax, the price could jump to nearly $11 a pack. Paterson’s bill would also double the tax on chewing tobacco and many other tobacco products while finally taxing little cigars as much as cigarettes.
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