Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 9, 1994 TAG: 9402090113
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"It stinks," said Tom Lowery, who was picking up lunch at the store Tuesday.
"It" is the cigarette-tax increase included in President Clinton's proposed 1995 budget. It would quadruple the per-pack federal tax to 99 cents. And it has few friends among smokers.
"I have a right to kill myself if I want to," said Lowery, who has smoked for 20 years.
Smokers are not alone in their dislike for the proposal, which would use the increased tax revenue to pay for health-care reform.
"I'm a nonsmoker, but I'm a businessperson, too," said Bill Anderson, owner of the store. Although the tax increase would barely affect the big grocery stores that receive only a small percentage of revenue from tobacco products, Anderson said, the mom-and-pop stores that rely on cigarette sales are going to feel the effects when they pass costs on to customers.
At noon Tuesday, Anderson's cash register showed that 25.51 percent of the day's sales had been tobacco products. That was lower than normal, Anderson said - tobacco sales account for more than 30 percent of the store's yearly income.
"The old cash cow is going to die one of these days," he said. "There's a point of no return, and when it starts to affect my pocketbook, that's when I get concerned."
Although Anderson doesn't believe smokers are going to kick the habit if the tax goes up, he thinks they will buy cheaper brands so they can continue to spend the same amount on cigarettes. And that means a smaller profit for the seller, he said.
"You hear them complain, but they continue to pay," Anderson said. "The smoker that smokes 1 1/2 or two packs a day will continue to smoke. But now they come in and it's, `What's the cheapest?' "
But Betty Anderson, Bill Anderson's wife and a smoker of 30 years, said the tax increase might be just what she - and other smokers - need to kick the lingering habit once and for all.
"More people are going to stop and actually think about quitting," she said. And as smoking becomes more and more inconvenient and expensive, fewer people - especially young people - are going to pick up cigarettes to begin with, she said.
Donnie Davis, a nonsmoker buying lunch at the grocery store, said some smokers might quit for a while because of the higher cost. But it won't last, he said.
"It's just like drinking soda," Davis said. "If you want it, you're going to pay $1 for it, or whatever, and the government knows that."
"I said when they went to $1 a pack that I'd quit," said pack-a-day smoker Ronald Ward as he headed to the cash register with a pack of cigarettes. "But I didn't."
"It's the only vice I've got," Lowery said, stubbing his cigarette out in an ashtray next to the counter. "I might as well use it."
by CNB