New Taxes Take Smokers By Surprise

20 bucks doesn't go as far as it used to for cigarettes.

“Usually I buy seven packs for $20, today I only got 5, that's awful,” says smoker Shelley Porter.
Many cigarette manufacturers have increased their per-pack price by about a dollar, starting this week. The earlier-than-expected price hike caught Tobacco Shack owner Bruce Frichter off guard. He says they're already pinched by existing taxes.

“$6 a carton difference between Mississippi and Alabama's strong and when a person's on a fixed income and when they're buying for the month a 10 minute ride they're going to save per carton,” says Frichter. In addition to the taxes most smokers will see, retailers have to pay a floor tax on stuff already in the store. That means every item has to be inventoried and that has to be paid in the coming months

“I'd rather take all my tobacco products, stow 'em in the battleship and throw everything in mobile bay and have a mobile bay tobacco party,” says Frichter. A spokesman for Philip Morris' parent company says they raised prices before April first to get a jump on floor taxes. The spokesman says people with concerns about the new taxes can go here. Frichter says the biggest hit will be on roll your own tobacco which jumped from about 17-bucks a pound to more than 40 next month. He says it's not a good time to raise taxes.