Well I'll be buying my cigarettes in North Carolina

[peternap]

http://news.oldva.org/?p=195

The first Sombitch award goes to our own Tim Kaine

Look what the father of abusive driving fees has come up with now....Remember, this is Tobacco Country! You should run for Governor in Illinois!

Full Story

WASHINGTON (AP) - Two Democratic legislators say Virginia Gov.Tim Kaine will propose a 30-cent cigarette tax increase and about 1,500 state job cuts.

The lawmakers spoke on the condition of anonymity because Kaine will not make the plans public until Wednesday. They said Kaine will estimate the shortfall in the budget through June 2010 to be about $2.9 billion.

Besides boosting the tobacco tax from 20 cents per pack to 50 cents, Kaine will also propose cuts of about $400 million each in health care and public education.

The legislators said budget amendments Kaine will propose to the General Assembly's money committees Wednesday also call for drawing about $500 million from the state's "rainy day" cash reserves.

[sparks]

Guv of ill noise? Bring him on.
Probably will fit right in.



sparks

[muldoon]

peter, also keep in mind the environment which makes this happen.

http://www.cbpp.org/9-8-08sfp.htm
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2144902/posts

43 states face bankruptcy next year.  Virginia faces a gap of some 974 million in 2009 and estimated 1.8 billion in 2010 based on todays estimates. 

We have not began to see the statewide pension plans fail yet so I doubt those are in the numbers yet.  We also do not have good ideas on what the state will cover as far as increased unemployment and civil needs requirements.  It could be far worse.   The sad fact is simple, services need to be cut severely and taxes raised severely just to try to put on the appearance of keeping our heads above water.   Tobacco is always an easy tax to sell, it will get much worse before it gets better. 

By the way, North Carolina is in a pretty big hole too.   I would expect more of the same. 

[peternap]

peter, also keep in mind the environment which makes this happen.

http://www.cbpp.org/9-8-08sfp.htm
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2144902/posts

43 states face bankruptcy next year.  Virginia faces a gap of some 974 million in 2009 and estimated 1.8 billion in 2010 based on todays estimates. 

We have not began to see the statewide pension plans fail yet so I doubt those are in the numbers yet.  We also do not have good ideas on what the state will cover as far as increased unemployment and civil needs requirements.  It could be far worse.   The sad fact is simple, services need to be cut severely and taxes raised severely just to try to put on the appearance of keeping our heads above water.   Tobacco is always an easy tax to sell, it will get much worse before it gets better. 

By the way, North Carolina is in a pretty big hole too.   I would expect more of the same. 

I will agree to a degree Muldoon. I am a former State employee and I left during the Robb reign of terror. That was during the last major shortfall in Va. Robb was no better than Kaine, remember Kaine was the one who while mayor, allowed the Million Mom Marchers to have their expenses paid by the city....until he got caught.

Anyway, while registering as a Lobbyist today, I noticed a lot of big and expensive changes. Lots of extra security, new buildings, once occupied buildings vacant, tourist areas built under the Capitol....etc/ Virginia had a huge surplus until he took office and he went on a spending spree.

Thankfully, Kaine has so little respect in the General Assembly, It's unlikely any of his proposals will even make it to vote....amd if it did, voting for higher taxes this year and especially a higher Tobacco tax, would be certain political suicide.

Since Virginia is Tobacco country, a tobacco tax will be a very hard sell. NC does have problems but Cigaretts have always been cheaper there and they would like the revenue from Va.

[peternap]

I've been working on this for about three weeks, but I'll give you a peek into my Game Commission waste story.

Once upon a time, the Game Commission was self supporting through hunting License sales. Then came Doug Wilder, Our first and hopefully last, Black Governor. He decided he wanted an army of Cops. Game Wardens were not sworn officers. They could enforce the Game laws and nothing else. Makes sense, that's what they were hired for.

Wilder took all the License money and put it in General Funds and put the Commission in the State budget. Then they created what was to become the Conservation Police Department. All sworn officers. While the old Wardens used Dated State Police vehicles and supplied their own weapons, the new breed of cop was fully equipped and upgraded the fleet of NEW vehicles every 2 years.

I have a friend that works for one of the NEW POLICE DEPARTMENTS (another agency). They do little in the way of enforcement.

It takes a year to take an applicant and train him while on probation. After a year, he goes to the police acadmy, and back to being a trainee. The figure for doing this is staggering.

Then assuming he doesn't get cut or hires out to a police department, he goes to work. This has left huge holes in the workforce. One officer was chasing a drunk driver (had nothing to do with game violations) and crashed. That county will not have a Game Warden/Conservation officer for another year.

The amount of wasted money in this state is unbelievable...............

[MountainDon]

It is all too believable.    Fish and Game should stick to what they do best and in the manner they've been doing it for years.

But VA does not have a monopoly on financial excesses. I believe NM is right up there with the best/worst of them. After all we have had nearly six years of Gov Bill Richardson.

One example, under Gov Bill NM has pursued Hollywood. There have been a number of movies and TV productions made here. The state throws money at them; I don't blame them for coming here to make movies. We are told that it is a boost to the NM economy. Maybe.  But under the program the state supplies interest free loans of up to $15 million per project. The state buys lunch... well 25% of the lunch. The state offers a 25 percent rebate on all production expenditures (including New Mexico labor) that are subject to taxation by the state. This is a refund, not a credit. So, if a film crew goes to lunch at a local restaurant and spends $100, taxpayers pick up $25 of the tab.

And then there is the "Great Train Robbery". Gov Bill pushed the Rail Runner heavy rail commuter train upon us. It cost some $400 million and gets a couple thousand riders a day. Adding insult to injury we were asked to authorize an additional gross receipts tax amount to help pay for it. Taxpayers will be paying up for years to come.

Then there's Governor Richardson's Impressive Plane. A Cessna Citation jet. So far it has cost more to operate in every year, than projected. Add to that the Spaceport.    Jeez!

Six years ago Gov Bill came into office with a $50 million dollar surplus (left by Gov Johnson (R)). Today we're waiting to hear the final deficit figures... $500 some million has been admitted to, some are saying $800, some more.  All that while under Gov Bill's prodding the legislature gave us a fiscal incentive check. 

[fishing_guy]

And then there is the "Great Train Robbery". Gov Bill pushed the Rail Runner heavy rail commuter train upon us. It cost some $400 million and gets a couple thousand riders a day. Adding insult to injury we were asked to authorize an additional gross receipts tax amount to help pay for it. Taxpayers will be paying up for years to come.
...

You got off cheaply.  Ours are costing an average of 1 Billion/line and there are 6 planned, including one to our neighboring state and happens to stop at an Indian Casino along the way.

They made the big money grab last year to pay for them.  Our county increased the sales tax by .5%, even though our county won't see "their" line for another 20 years(at least).

[peternap]

The members of the General Assembly aren't all STOOPID

Here's a clip from todays news:

Some lawmakers believe the tax is bad for state revenue -- believing Virginians will travel out of state to buy their cigarettes. There's also a concern the tax-hike could lead to job cuts in the tobacco industry.


You're damn Skippy some of us will buy them out of state

[fishing_guy]

We had that happen in our state of Minnesota.  They raised the per pack tax $0.75.  Our neighboring state of Wisconsin had lower taxes on smokes.

There was a gas station on the border (15 minutes away) which went from ordering smokes twice a month to twice a week.  The entire back room became a cigarette warehouse.

Wisconsin then raised their tax a year later.  You couldn't buy a carton of smokes the week before that, there was such a run.

Now our state has gone to the "fire safe" smokes.  Once again, many are crossing the border to get "normal" smokes.  Some things never change.

[desdawg]

I finally quit. I would like to tell you I had a lot of lofty ideals about health issues but the bottom line was the price  became too great. Physically it takes about 3 days to get the nicotine out of your system or so I read. Psychologically, well that is another story. I was paying about $30 for carton of off brand cigarettes and I have replaced them with a $1.00 box of cinamon red hot candies. I keep them in a little pill bottle in my shirt pocket where the cigarettes used to be so when I want to reach for that pocket and get something to put in my mouth the candies are there. I had a prescription for some anti depressants that were supposed to help but they did nothing. I suppose we all have to trick our on minds however we do. I stopped at a Wal Mart store on Nov 24th to get the little candies, took them right to the truck and said I will have to start this tomorrow. then I said to myself what is magic about tomorrow that it will be better, so how about right now. And that was it for me. Tomorrow never really gets here does it. I am so tired of paying taxes and that one was voluntary so I decided to eliminate it.

[glenn kangiser]

That's great, Des.  Lots more things to spend that money on.

[desdawg]

That's great, Des.  Lots more things to spend that money on.

Many better ways to spend a buck than give it to the tax man. That is hard to understand when you have the addiction.

[MountainDon]

I found the psychological addition worse than the physical. Now it's been so long I really don't even have the hankering to light up a cigar or pipe. Those were my tobacco vices.

[peternap]

I found the psychological addition worse than the physical. Now it's been so long I really don't even have the hankering to light up a cigar or pipe. Those were my tobacco vices.

Me too Don. The physical end is a piece of cake. I quit for a year once....but the trick is, you need to want to quit. I started again for no good reason at all.

[MountainDon]

I quit more times than I can count or remember.    Sometimes for a few months, sometimes longer, but something would happen and I'd relapse. I actually burned my pipes one winter day in the wood stove. Got a good hot fire going and chucked them in. Not having them around as a temptation helped a little bit for a while. But then there were cigars. It also helped that I am/was sort of picky when it came to cigars and the good ones were getting more and more pricey. I quit making so many trips back home and that curtailed my smuggling of Cuban cigars which were a favorite. Eventually about 10 years ago I managed to quit for good. As long as I don't decide to try "just one" again someday.     Never did cigarettes somehow though.

[glenn kangiser]

I want my lungs to be pink when they fry me....  Strange Brew....

[desdawg]

Shutting down alcohol and the other funny stuff was mentally simpler than dealing with tobacco. I have been sober since June 5, 1988 but whose counting. Now that I have done all of that don't be messing with my caffein.