Prices leave smokers fuming
Some smokers in Santa Rosa County feel like they are discarded butts, just like the remains of each cigarette they smoke because of what they call high prices.
When looking at the difference between prices in the Milton/Pace area verses those charged in Brewton, Ala., the difference for a pack of cigarettes is around $1.60 a pack, while smokeless tobacco customers look to be getting snuffed out with a difference of almost $2.70 a can.
Some stores will point to taxes as the issue, but that is not the entire case with the difference between the two states at $0.914.
But many are choosing to shop somewhere other than the local grocer, convenience store, or shopping center.
“I know a lot of people have started going to Alabama to buy them now,” according to Dawn Worden, a RaceTrack employee in Milton.
The shopping is one thing, but there appears to be more to it as this part of the state is well above the national average of $5.15 per pack as reported in a Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids report in October of this year.
Florida ranks 24th nationally with a tax of $1.339 per pack of smokes or can of tobacco, while Alabama is 46th at $0.425 per pack or can.
Ironcially the highest state tax is in Rhode Island at $3.46 per pack, while South Carolina is at the other end of the scale at seven cents per pack.
Federally the cigarette tax is $1.01 per pack.
But the news that taxes are not as high as they figured does not ease the pain of the smokers.
“We’ve had to resort to buying cheaper cigarettes,” smoker Tloria Owens said. “This isn’t easy for us.”
Attempts to discover how the smoking laws and issues have affected taxes collected both in Florida and Alabama were not answered by the agencies who oversee the collection of these taxes.
Ironically smokers appear to be targeted by each state when it comes to raising taxes with California, Missouri, North Dakota and South Carolina being the only four states not to raise taxes paid by smokers in the last 10 years.
Florida itself has raised the tax rate paid by smokers just in the last few months.
“What the state has done isn’t right,” according to John Owens. “They have targeted cigarette smokers. They have increased taxes at a time when most people can’t afford to pay the high price.
“People that smoke are usually under stress, and this just puts us under even more stress.”
At one time cigarette makers offered discounts to help stem the loss of smokers, but in the last several years the big three brands have increased product cost by almost one dollar a pack.
Besides the taxes you see there is also a tax stamp per pack that includes $0.75 for a health impact fee and $0.33 cigarette sales tax.
Ironically the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that smoking-caused health costs total $10.28 per pack sold and consumed in the U.S.
The only area that might come close to this figure nationally is New York City who has a $4.25 tax per pack when you figure the $2.75 per pack for the state and $1.50 per pack for New York City proper, to lead the list of top combined state-local cigarette tax rates.
Florida itself is No. 39 on the same list just for it’s state rate.
“I don’t think this is fair,” said Owens. “I don’t think we should be a target, we’ve already had enough taken away from us.”
Brand Milton/Pace Brewton, Ala. Difference
Marlboro $6.33 $4.73 $1.60
Winston $6.07 $4.47 $1.60
Camel $6.10 $4.53 $1.57
Kodiak $6.28 $3.50 $2.78
Skoal $6.28 $3.35 $2.93
Red Seal $4.73 $2.46 $2.27
Note: This is an average of the stores we called in each area for per pack prices which does not include taxes.
