Marlboro

Budget officials expected the tax increase would reduce sales by causing some people to quit smoking. The sale of state stamps, which are placed on cigarette packs, dropped more than expected for the first three months of the budget year, Wiest said.


The state sold nearly 12 million stamps in July, August and September last year, but stamp sales fell to slightly more than 10.1 million in the same three months this year, Wiest said.


Revenue Secretary Paul Kinsman said it's difficult to make projections based on a few months because the sales of marlboro stamps vary significantly from month to month. A wholesaler might buy a lot of stamps in a month and then not have to buy any the next month, he said.


Tobacco taxes amounted to $28 million a year before those taxes increased in January.


In addition to the increase in the $1-a-pack increase in the cigarette tax, the 10 percent tax on other tobacco products rose to 35 percent.


Sen. Ed Olson, R-Mitchell, noted that a failed congressional proposal to provide health care to more children would have been funded by raising the federal tax on cigarettes by 61 cents a pack.