Picture this, I live in Ilinois and I work in Indiana. I smoke. My brand of cigarettes used to cost $.15 a pack more in Illinois than they did in Indiana. That was until July 1, 2007. The Indiana cigarette tax went up by $.44 a pack. This makes my brand of cigarettes $.29 a pack cheaper in Illinois than in Indiana. Good for me. I buy my smokes, now, in Illinois. I buy 500 packs a year. 500 X $.44 = $220.00. That's the amount of money that Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels thought he could take from me, beyond the tax that the state has been taking from me for years. The tax has gone from 15.5 cents per pack to 99.5 cents in just five years. Indiana just wasn't happy enough with what they were already sucking out of us smokers! Now, from me, they lose what they had been getting plus any increase they were dreaming of!
There's a lesson to be learned form this, Mitch. That lesson is: "Sometimes half a loaf of bread is better than no bread at all!"
Smoke 'em if you got 'em.
