The West Virginia state legislature has volleyed a tobacco tax increase back and forth for nearly three months as they seek to come to a budget agreement, and while it appeared to be dead as of just over a week ago, this week it is back in play as part of an extra legislative focused on getting a 2016-17 budget passed. Yesterday, the state senate’s finance committee approved a bill that will increase the tax on cigarettes by 65 cents per pack while increasing the tax on other tobacco products–including premium cigars–from 7 to 12 percent of the wholesale price. By halfwheel estimates, that means that a cigar with an MSRP of $9.50 would go from costing $10.17 to $10.64, before any additional taxes were added. Electronic cigarettes would also be subject to a 12 percent tax at the point of sale under the current proposal. All totaled, it would bring in approximately $100 million according to state estimates, which would make a decent dent in the current $270 million budget gap. The same committee also voted down a pair of proposed sales tax increases, the first of one percent, which would have raised an estimated $200 million in the coming year, ...
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