$1.5 million cigarette heist

ABOUT $1.5 million worth of cigarettes have been stolen from a freight company in Sydney's west.

Police were called to the firm's holding yard at Wetherill Park on Saturday after employees discovered it had been broken into and four pallets of cigarettes stolen. Police allege that CCTV showed three men breaking into the premises about 1am.

They used a forklift to remove the pallets before putting them in a truck, which was later found burnt out at Minchinbury. While the cigarettes have a wholesale value of about $600,000, police said they would retail for approximately $1.5 million.

How to Buy Cheap Camel Cigarettes

1. First, go to any cigarette shop in your city, and check out the prices. Write them down.

2. Now, just Google Search "cigarette deals online". Most of this stores sell Camel Cigarettes for for cheap. But - many of this stores also sell fake cigarettes (that you really shouldn't smoke).

3. Choose an online cigarette shop, compare the prices (from step 1). If you like it, just order.

4.Keep ordering and saving hundreds of dollars each month! Consider not smoking, of course, if you can break the habit!

Tobacco giants’ plain talk on packaging

The big tobacco manufacturers are to meet health officials this month, giving them a unique opportunity to head off government proposals to enforce non-branding on cigarette packs.
Imperial Tobacco, the world’s fourth-largest tobacco company, will visit the Department of Health today to discuss the department’s official assessment on how plain tobacco packaging would affect the industry.
The other big manufacturers have also been invited to meet officials. British American Tobacco will do so later in the month.

Additional Omaha Cigarette Tax Took Effect January 1st

If you live in Omaha it's going to cost you more to light up in 2013. A three percent occupation tax on cigarette sales goes into effect January 1st.

The new tax is meant to raise roughly $35 million for the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s $370 million dollar cancer complex.

The City Council ended up approving a scaled down version of the original tax proposal, which was sitting at seven percent, according to WOWT. The council expects to raise that $35 million over the next decade.

Electronic cigarettes gaining on traditional products

The swelling popularity of electronic cigarettes may add to the regulatory and revenue tension between tobacco manufacturers and states.
Electronic cigarettes, or e-cigs, are battery-powered devices that heat a liquid nicotine solution in a disposable cartridge and create a vapor that is inhaled.

Refill cartridges can be purchased in different sizes and flavors; five-packs typically cost between $9 and $18. By comparison, a carton of cigarettes can cost between $25 and $50 for most name brands.
Bonnie Herzog, a Wells Fargo Securities analyst, believes the e-cig craze has shifted from “fad” to “here to stay.”
So much so that Herzog said recently in a note to investors that e-cig sales could grow fast enough to affect the payments states receive from the landmark Master Settlement Agreement.
Tobacco companies, including R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., agreed in 1998 to settle lawsuits filed by 46 state attorneys general over smoking-related health-care costs by paying those states about $206 billion over more than 20 years.
Most states have redirected much, if not all, of their MSA money to general expenditures, much to the chagrin of public-health advocacy groups.
Meanwhile, sales of electronic cigarettes are about $300 million a year and the products have about 2.5 million users, according to Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette Association.
There are projections of $1 billion in annual sales within a few years, Herzog said, in part because there is no federal excise tax on e-cigs. Only Minnesota has a state excise tax.
“If the prospects for e-cig category growth are as robust as we believe, this should have a meaningful positive impact on the industry's profitability long term,” Herzog said.
“Given that the industry's MSA payments are volume based, as e-cigs take share from traditional cigarettes, the decline in these payments to the states should accelerate. In other words, the dollar amount of these MSA payments should drop faster.”
As a result, Herzog said, those manufacturers that embrace e-cigs, either through internal production or acquisition, will gain – at least in the short term – better sales margins.
Anyone who has visited the check-out counter at a convenience store or tobacco outlet has seen what Herzog is describing – multiple e-cig brands on display, according to Winston-Salem Journal.

Images may harm your smoking pleasure

Alex Town's first box of plain-packaged cigarettes did not faze him.
Gone was the familiar trademark of his favourite brand, Benson & Hedges, to be replaced by an innocuous image of a cigarette being stubbed out in an ashtray. He had won his first round of health-warning roulette.
The drab olive packages which became mandatory this month feature a variety of new, graphic warning labels designed to confront consumers with the consequences of smoking-related disease.
Some of the images are more confronting than others: there is the eyeball being surgically opened ("smoking causes blindness"), the decaying lung, the cancerous tongue and the stained, rotting teeth.
But the two warning labels giving smokers the most discomfort are the gangrenous foot and the infamous "Bryan", who is pictured brutally emaciated and almost dead from lung cancer. And it is these larger, more shocking graphics - rather than the lack of branding - which are challenging users to reconsider their habits.
"The colour doesn't put me off, it actually looks quite smart to me," says Town, a 26-year old public servant who has decided to quit as his New Year's resolution, according to smh.com.au.

Cigarette prices to increase again

Cigarette prices are rising again, with the two largest tobacco manufacturers expressing confidence that another 6-cent a pack increase won’t deter smokers in a down economy.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Philip Morris USA confirmed Thursday they are raising their list price by 6 cents on all their brands. Reynolds’ price increase goes into effect today, while Philip Morris’ goes into effect Tuesday.

Lorillard Inc. is raising the list price by 6 cents a pack on its Newport, Kent, Maverick, and True brands.
Although the list price is geared toward wholesale and direct-buying customers, they tend to pass most or all of such increases on to consumers.

“I cannot speculate how this will affect the price at retail, as we don't set that price,” Reynolds spokesman Richard Smith said.

In June, Philip Morris and Reynolds raised the list price by 6 cents on most of its brands, while Lorillard increased its list price by 8 cents.

More employers demand applicants quit smoking

Until the day he was offered the job as executive sous chef of the new Hollywood Casino Columbus, Tim Dionisio smoked a pack of cigarettes a day.

And when things got hot and hectic in the kitchen, and there wasn’t time to go outside for a cigarette break, “I popped little bags of spitless chew in my mouth.”

Dionisio is now four months into a cold-turkey goodbye to tobacco products. Instead, he chain-sucks Werther’s Original candies.

“I go through a bag every two days,” he said.

Quitting wasn’t by choice, but from necessity, if he wanted to work at Hollywood Casino Columbus, which opened on Oct. 8. It does not hire smokers or allow employees to smoke on the premises or even in their homes.“Once I realized the offer was serious, I stopped smoking that day,” Dionisio said. “And I couldn’t use a patch or gum because they have nicotine in them and would have shown up on the (drug) test.”
Job-seekers must pass a drug test that includes nicotine screening, and, once hired, employees caught smoking can be fired.

“This (casino) is a brand-new project, and we wanted to set the tone from the start, that wellness is important,” said Ameet Patel, general manager of Hollywood Casino, which is owned by Penn National Gaming.

Although it is not yet a trend, a growing number of companies — especially hospitals — refuse to hire smokers, says The Columbus Dispatch. Ohio-based companies with this policy include Scotts Miracle-Gro and the Cleveland Clinic.
The goal is to improve the health of employees and reduce the company’s health-care costs.

However, this policy has raised legal and ethical issues and has some asking: Where will it stop?
“The slope is slippery,” said Lewis Maltby, president of the National Workrights Institute, a nonprofit spinoff of the American Civil Liberties Union that opposes the hiring bans.

“Smoking isn’t the only thing that affects your health; there’s drinking, eating red meat, exercise or not exercising — even your sex life affects your health,” Maltby said. “And once you say it’s all right for employers to tell someone what they can and can’t do in their private life, you don’t have a private life anymore.”

Anti-tobacco group eyes ‘smoker’s licence’

A proposed smoker’s licence could see people forced to take a test and pay a fee before they are allowed to buy cigarettes.

The licence, proposed by Sydney University professor of public health Simon Chapman, would require applicants to pass an online 'risk knowledge' test to make sure they know the dangers of what they are about to do, as well as paying an annual fee to keep the licence.

Licence holders would be given a card which they would have to show or scan whenever they wanted to purchase cigarettes or tobacco.

Action on Smoking Health director Ben Youdan says the idea is one option which could help achieve the New Zealand Government’s goal of becoming a smoke free country by 2025.

But there are a number of potential disadvantages to this idea, one being that it would take a lot of bureaucracy, money and time to get it in place.

His main concern though is that it places the burden of responsibility on the smoker, rather than the cigarette companies.

A proposed smoker’s licence could see people forced to take a test and pay a fee before they are allowed to buy cigarettes.

The licence, proposed by Sydney University professor of public health Simon Chapman, would require applicants to pass an online 'risk knowledge' test to make sure they know the dangers of what they are about to do, as well as paying an annual fee to keep the licence.

Licence holders would be given a card which they would have to show or scan whenever they wanted to purchase cigarettes or tobacco.

Action on Smoking Health director Ben Youdan says the idea is one option which could help achieve the New Zealand Government’s goal of becoming a smoke free country by 2025.

Read more: http://www.3news.co.nz/Anti-tobacco-group-eyes-smokers-licence/tabid/423/articleID/277256/Default.aspx#ixzz2CrVR0Ffu

Seven Brookline retailers fined for selling tobacco to minors

The number of retailers in town that failed the annual tobacco compliance checks shot up this year, with seven establishments getting caught selling tobacco to minors in October.

Compliance rates in the Department of Public Health program fell from 95 percent last year to 80 percent this year during a check of all 31 tobacco retailers. There were also more than twice as many businesses that failed the compliance check, despite a considerable decrease in the number of businesses permitted to sell tobacco.

The retailers who sold to a minor were issued fines at the time of the infraction in the amount of $200, and must pay an additional surcharge fee for the next two years to renew their annual tobacco sales permit.

JTI rolls out addition to Amber Leaf roll-up line-up

On November 1, Japan Tobacco International launched a new addition to its Amber Leaf rolling tobacco brand.

Amber Leaf Blonde uses a paler coloured cigarette blend, which the company believes will attract existing cigarette smokers who are trading down into roll your own (RYO) from ready-rolled cigarettes.

Blonde will be available across all channels in a 12.5g crush-proof box and 25g pouch, and exclusively to multiples in 50g, said The Grocer. It has a recommended retail price of £3.87, £7.57 and £14.99 respectively, the same as Amber Leaf.

“The launch of Amber Leaf Blonde is designed to capitalise on the growth of the RYO market, as well as Amber Leaf’s No.1 status - an achievement we’re hugely proud of,” said JTI head of communications Jeremy Blackburn.

“Unlike traditional RYO tobacco, the blend of which is typically dark in colour, Blonde uses a pale-coloured Virginia blend to provide a smooth taste. It’ll not only appeal to existing adult RYO smokers, but also the growing number of existing adult dual smokers looking for an RYO product to switch to.”

Russia Anti-Smoking Draft Law Said to Be Submitted to Parliament

Russia submitted an anti-tobacco law to Parliament today as it seeks to curb smoking amid opposition from cigarette makers, a government official said, declining to be identified because the information hasn’t been made public. The government in the world’s second-largest market for cigarette producers after China proposed measures that will outlaw all tobacco advertising and sponsorship as well as kiosk sales immediately, with bans on trade in small retail outlets and smoking in public places taking effect Jan. 1, 2015.

Russia, which has also raised alcohol taxes as part of efforts to improve its citizens’ health, wants the law passed this year as it fights lobbying efforts by tobacco companies, Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets said Oct. 18. Philip Morris International Inc. (PM), British American Tobacco (BATS), Japan Tobacco and Imperial Tobacco (IMT), which control 93 percent of the Russian market, hooked women and children on smoking, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said in a video blog Oct. 16., vowing to crack down on the habit.

Which Tobacco Stocks To Buy And Which To Avoid?

ordercigarettes.beeplog.de - order cigarettes here for cheap price

Investors have enjoyed a tremendous ride with unbelievably consistent returns in big tobacco stocks. Thirty years back, if you had invested $100 in Altria Group (MO), previously named Philip Morris Companies, you would have fetched substantial dividends over these years and the stocks would have been worth more than $5,000 today. Altria and other big tobacco companies like Reynolds American (RAI), Lorillard (LO) and Philip Morris International (PM) continue to lure investors due to their far higher dividend yield as compared to other stable blue chip stocks.

Domestic tobacco companies including Altria Group, Lorillard and Reynolds American all provide above 5% dividend yield, while Philip Morris International's dividend yield stands at 3.90% which is highly impressive in a world of low interest rates. However, these tobacco stocks seem to have lost their momentum over the last few months. The following graph summarizes the stock price movement of these companies over the last 2 months.

Given the declining tobacco consumption trends in U.S. and tightening of regulations in countries like Australia, tobacco stocks have taken a beating. Although I remain optimistic about Philip Morris due to a huge runway for growth in Asian markets, I'm a little skeptical about domestic tobacco companies as their earnings are dependent upon cost cuttings and price hikes and may not be sustainable.

Domestic tobacco companies have traditionally enjoyed good pricing power, but they do not seem to have the same pricing power now as promotions by the market leader Altria Group are driving Reynolds American and Lorillard to get defensive. Big tobacco stocks have followed more or less a similar pattern over the last few years, but I don't think they will continue to follow a similar path. Thus, I think it becomes extremely important to carefully choose your pick going forward. Let's analyze some key metrics of these companies.

Flavored Cigars, Pellets, Sticks And Strips Now Common To Lure Kids

With cigarette smoking rates on the decline in the U.S., the tobacco industry insures its livelihood by creating products that attract a new generation of lifelong nicotine addicts, says anti-smoking group Tobacco Free Florida. Tobacco products in flavors like kiwi-strawberry, chocolate and sour apple are increasingly available in communities throughout the U.S. and increasingly popular among youth.

Types of flavored tobacco products include: · Cigars, cigarillos and little cigars, which are being used at an increasing rate nationwide · Smokeless tobacco like chew, dip and snus that have serious health risks and can contain more nicotine that cigarettes · New smokeless tobacco products like orbs (dissolvable tobacco pellets), toothpick-like sticks, and dissolvable strips that resemble candy and mints in more than just flavor Nearly nine out of 10 smokers start by age 18.

Prevention is key in combating the tobacco epidemic say experts. They say parents should know about the dangers of these products so that they can educate their kids adding teens whose parents strongly disapprove of tobacco are less likely to take up tobacco.

Future of Tobacco Industry Depends on Innovation

When people consider innovation, the tobacco industry isn't likely the first thing that comes to mind. However, the market is undergoing big changes, driven largely by health concerns, higher tax rates and the availability of new options for smokers to get their nicotine fix.

While premium e-cigarettes have been around for years, more advanced smoking devices are making their way to market that address issues faced by tobacco companies and consumers alike. According to a study released by Euromonitor, the total number of tobacco users worldwide will remain at one billion by 2050, but in terms of overall equivalent tobacco volume, the worldwide tobacco products market is predicted to contract by approx. 7 percent from 2015 to 2050 due to a 9 percent decline in cigarette sales volume.

Offsetting the decline will be record volume increases in premium categories including specialty niche nicotine delivery products according to the study, in part because of the perception that they are less dangerous than cigarettes. Taxes on cigarettes will play a large role in this movement. New York, for example, has the highest cigarette tax in the U.S. at $4.35 per pack, which can bring the total cost per pack to $12. Low income smokers in New York are particularly affected, often spending 25 percent of their household income on cigarettes.

Furthermore, high taxes on cigarettes and tobacco labeled as "roll your own" are prompting a switch to loose tobacco (labeled for pipe use) products. Loose (pipe) tobacco is taxed at significantly lower rates than the other forms of tobacco due largely to a 2009 increase in the federal tobacco excise tax. Many innovative solutions are becoming available to address these changes in the tobacco market. The Pax Vaporizer (pictured above) is one such offering, being distributed with the help of Japan Tobacco International, owner of Benson & Hedges.

The device, offered by Vape World, takes a modern approach to smoking, resembling an iPod with an anodized aluminum exterior. By using actual loose-leaf tobacco heated and turned into a vapor, the harmful ingredients in smoke are removed, while the nicotine and flavor of cigarettes and other tobacco products remain. The device is part of the larger movement away from the iconography and language of cigarettes normally targeted at smokers and addresses the demand for healthier options.

MU needs your support on cigarette tax increase

Don’t let the shiny student center and awesome swag floating around campus fool you: MU suffers from a chronic lack of funding. Only four other states in the union offer less state support to their flagship institutions. Campus Facilities has a backlog of critical repairs to classrooms and dorms that would cost $177.1 million to complete. MU’s faculty is paid, on average, $17,000 less than their Association of American Universities peers.

Tuition has increased each of the last five years as Bright Flight and Access Missouri scholarships have withered. MU needs to find new revenue sources if it’s to continue to provide a quality college education. Proposition B is that solution. And a solution is needed, because the sad truth is education cuts affect more than our professors’ salaries or our decrepit classrooms.

Just in the last year, the Missouri Students Association found it necessary to open a food pantry for its student body. Although the outpouring of support it has received genuinely warms the heart, its existence should send a cold shiver down your spine. More and more students are impoverishing themselves to get an education. At a time when attention should be directed toward their studies, our peers are filing food stamp forms and applying for Medicaid eligibility. They are worrying, day-to-day, about putting food on their tables.

We should celebrate our student food pantry and bemoan its necessity. It is the inevitable result of drastic and irresponsible cuts to higher education. Students fought for, and got, a respite from harsh state cuts in last year’s budget. But the trend lines are as depressing as they are clear: If MU is to continue to grow and improve, it needs more revenue. And we’re not going to get it from existing channels. The average state cigarette tax is $1.49 a pack. In Missouri, it’s $0.17 — the lowest in the nation by a comically wide margin. A low cigarette tax doesn’t just rob Missouri of needed tax revenue — it increases the amount that we smoke.

Missouri ranks fifth in smoking prevalence, a fact that is undoubtedly related to how cheap our cigarettes are. The Centers for Disease Control estimates smoking-related health costs total $10.47 per pack. These costs, which in our state run into the hundreds of millions of dollars a year, fall disproportionately on Medicaid enrollees and those enlisted on government welfare. In short, all tax-paying Missourians pay the price for the choices that smokers make. Raising cigarette taxes makes that choice harder.

Enter Proposition B, which raises the cigarette tax by $0.73 to $0.90 a pack. Notice: The amount is still substantially below the national average. We would be ranked not 50th, but 32nd of all 50 states. What makes Proposition B interesting — and worthy of your support — is what it plans to accomplish with its revenue. Missouri budget experts expect the tax to generate $283 million to $423 million every year. This revenue would be put aside exclusively for public education in the state of Missouri. Every cent would be funneled into strengthening Missouri’s long-term competitiveness.

This campus alone could expect to receive an additional $40 million a year. This money represents MU’s only opportunity to replenish the funds pilfered from higher education by both Democrats and Republicans throughout the years. No one likes a tax increase. And it’s true that excise taxes, or “sin taxes” like this one, disproportionately harm the poor.

But our budget is about priorities. It’s about what matters most to you. Sending any tax increase to a referendum is always a risky move. Ultimately, it signifies a vote of confidence in the voters of Missouri, confidence in knowing our education and our health are worth the modest price smokers are being asked to pay. On Nov. 6, let us reward that confidence. For a healthier Missouri and a stronger Mizzou, vote yes on Proposition B.

Deputy suspected of giving inmates cigarettes and other items

Authorities report a sheriff's deputy suspected of bringing items into a jail and giving them to inmates was arrested Friday afternoon. The St. Mary Parish Sheriff's Office said Shay Cline, 20, of Centerville faces charges of entering contraband into a penal institution and malfeasance in office.

Investigators said some of the items Cline allegedly gave to inmates included tobacco and lighters. He was booked into the St. Mary Parish Law Enforcement Center, but was later transferred to another jail. His bond was set at $20,000 The investigation is ongoing.

Should we really legalize marijuana?

In just over a week’s time, thousands of people across Massachusetts will be taking time out of their day to find a nearby polling station, to cast their vote in the 2012 presidential election. There will be a few things on their minds, namely, who should be the next president of the United States. But there is another pressing issue concerning many residents of Massachusetts. Question 3 on the state ballot will determine whether marijuana ought to be legalized for medical purposes. If passed, it would be a significant step towards total legalization of marijuana for recreational use. However, before we can even talk about the legalization of marijuana, the question must be asked; is it a good idea to legalize it?

The short answer is no. The legalization of marijuana would not bring about the changes we desire. Currently, there is a war going on south of the U.S. border. It is between the Mexican government, and the powerful drug cartels that dominate almost all of Mexico. This war has been going on for several decades, but the United States has only been actively involved since the 1980s. Recently, the violence has escalated. President Felipe Calderón was elected in the year 2006. He promised a hard line against the drug cartels, who, through corruption, extortion, terrorism and murder, effectively operate within the Mexican border.

The war between the Mexican government and the cartels has led to approximately 48,000 deaths, including more than 5,000 disappearances, and thousands and thousands of children orphaned and displaced. The cartels have spawned mass graves, terrorist acts and continue to buy illegal assault weapons and ship their drugs to the United States. More than 100 schools have been closed in Mexico as a result of the violence, as well as entire police forces deserting, under threat of death by the cartels. The Chihuahua province, just south of the U.S.-Mexican border, is currently more dangerous than all of Afghanistan. The violence has spilled over the border. Cartels recruit young aged children in Mexico and in the U.S. for drug-related activity, such as the case of “El Ponchis” (The Cloak) where a 14-year-old American, from San Diego, was convicted for the beheading and torturing of four people for a cartel.

The cartels receive their money to perpetuate this war, as you probably guessed, from the sale and export of drugs to the U.S. The cartels make approximately $39 billion annually from drug sales into the U.S. Currently, 90 percent of the illicit drugs in the United States have made their way in through Mexico. In 2007, the Congressional Research Service released a report to Congress stating that more than 10,000 metric tons of marijuana were being produced in Mexico per year, with about 2,900 metric tons of it being intercepted. This means that the cartels manage to smuggle in over 7,000 metric tons of marijuana a year.

Not only this, but the cartels also manage to produce upwards of 275 metric tons of cocaine, and 19 metric tons of heroin for export into the U.S. per year. Seizures of methamphetamine has also increased five-fold from the year 2000 to 2006, prompting evidence that production has also increased drastically. So, how does this all relate? Well, here in the United States, millions of people smoke, or have smoked, marijuana. More than 42 percent of high school seniors have reported smoking marijuana. The American people provide a steady flow of income for the cartels who are terrorists and mass murderers. For example, one kilogram of cocaine costs at little as $2,000 to produce south of the U.S-Mexican border.

However, it sells for up to $120,000, depending on the location. Some may argue that, should marijuana be legalized, it would reduce the market share of the cartels, which would result in them making less money. But would this really happen? If Congress moved to legalize marijuana, then certainly they would demand that marijuana be grown in facilities either run by, or regulated by the government. Not only this, but the production distribution, packaging, and retail of marijuana would all be heavily regulated and taxed. The farmers growing the marijuana would most likely be unionized and at a minimum be paid well and have health benefits.

All of these factors would drive up the cost of legal marijuana, far past the cost of nearly free labor to grow the plant in Mexico, and whatever prices the dealers charge locally. Though the cartels would not have any standing in the legal market, they would continue to completely dominate the black market. If people already purchase marijuana illegally, why would they purchase more expensive marijuana that is legal? These cartels are pushing millions of people out of Mexico, causing them to flee the violence into the United States. These groups of murderers and terrorists need to be brought to justice first. If we can successfully crush the drug cartels, who are creating havoc in Mexico, and killing and endangering America citizens and officers near the border, then, we can talk about legalizing marijuana.

Speedboat caught conveying illegal cigarettes into S'pore

Early this morning, the Police Coast Guard (PCG) successfully confiscated 1,300 cartons of duty unpaid cigarettes and seized a 7m long speedboat. The unnumbered speedboat was spotted heading towards the mouth of Sungei Pandan at about 6am, and soon after two people on board were seen throwing boxes wrapped in black plastic bags onto the shoreline.

PCG officers quickly moved in to intercept the speedboat, but the alleged smugglers ditched their illegal activities and fled from the scene to evade arrest. Efforts to locate the two suspects are currently in progress, PCG said. The total Excise Duty and Goods and Services Tax (GST) of the cigarettes confiscated was valued to be about $107,000.

Buying, selling, conveying, delivering, storing, keeping, having in possession or dealing with duty-unpaid goods are serious offences under the Customs Act and the Goods and Services Tax Act. Offenders can be fined up to 40 times the amount of duty evaded and/or jailed for up to six years. The minimum court fines for first-time and repeat offenders of tobacco-related offences are $2,000 and $4,000 respectively.

Repeat offenders who are caught with more than two kilogrammes of tobacco products will also face mandatory imprisonment. Vehicles used in the commission of such offences may also be forfeited. Members of the public are strongly advised not to buy duty-unpaid products. For possessing a packet of duty-unpaid cigarettes, buyers may face a minimum fine of $500 or prosecution in court.

Cigarette Tax Hike In Preckwinkle's Proposed County Budget

Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle released the details of her 2013 budget Thursday and it aims to raise $43 million in new revenue through a series of new taxes and fees. Preckwinkle held the line on raising property taxes to generate revenue. The so-called “violence tax” Preckwinkle proposed last week is one of the new fees.

With a dual purpose of generating revenue and attempting to curb violence in Cook County, Preckwinkle’s proposal would impose a tax of $25 for each firearm sold in Cook County and five cents for each bullet. Opponents of the tax argue that it would only drive potential gun owners to the collar counties to purchase guns. The biggest moneymaker in the budget is a proposed $1-per-pack hike in the county cigarette tax, which is already at $2 a pack.

If approved, it’s expected to generate $25 million in revenue. It will also be more sticker shock to Chicago and County smokers. Cigarettes already cost $4.67 a pack in Chicago and $3.99 in the suburbs. Other new fees include an $800 charge to every new video gambling machine in Cook County and a $5 fee for every “confirmation of death” letter from the County morgue. We’ve included a residents guide to the county budget below.