Up in smoke? CA legislators consider $2 per pack cigarette tax hike

By Katy Grimes | Cal Watchdog

Like a re-lit cigarette, smoke again is rising from Senate Bill 768. By state Sen. Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, the bill would place a new tax on cigarettes of $2 a pack, with an equivalent tax on cigars, pipe tobacco and other tobacco products.

With de Leon slated to become the next Senate president pro-tem later this year, SB768 enjoys increased clout behind it.

According to the bill, the money would go into “the Cigarette and Tobacco Products Surtax Fund, the Breast Cancer Fund, the California Children and Families Trust Fund, and the General Fund, to offset the revenue decrease directly resulting from imposition of additional taxes by this article.”

California’s current tobacco tax is is 87 cents a pack. So $2 on top of that would be a 230 percent increase.

at Cal Watchdog.

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