MADISON, WI (WTAQ) – About one of every three cigarettes smoked in Wisconsin in 2013 were bought in other states with lower cigarette taxes.
That’s according to the Tax Foundation, which said Wisconsin had the nation’s 7th-highest rate of cigarette smuggling.
The group’s report says that when cigarette taxes are jacked up to raise revenues, more smugglers come in to resell cigarettes bought at lower prices elsewhere.
All of Wisconsin’s neighboring states have lower cigarette taxes, which gives individuals a chance to cross the any of the state’s borders for cheaper smokes.
The Badger State tax has not been raised during the Walker years — but it did go up in the last decade under Democratic Governor Jim Doyle.
The Tax Foundation said Wisconsin raised its cigarette tax by 227 percent from 2006 through ’13. Only Texas, Florida, and Iowa had larger increases.
The foundation listed Wisconsin’s cigarette tax at $2.52 a pack compared to $2 in Michigan, $1.98 in Illinois, $1.60 in Minnesota, and $1.36 in Iowa.
The Tax Foundation said it used figures from the Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Michigan to estimate cigarette smuggling in each state.
New York had the largest rate, with 58 percent of cigarettes smuggled in under the nation’s highest state cigarette tax of $4.35 a pack. Arizona was second.
(Story courtesy of Wheeler News Service)
