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<DIV>David,</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>From the March 17, 2005 issue of the Missoulian :</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>"At the moment, tobacco tax revenue is down, not up. That's likely due at
least in part to stockpiling in advance of the Jan. 1 effective date for the tax
increase. But it's quite possibly going to take several months or longer to get
a good read on the amount of money the higher tax is going to produce." </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I guess I can't understand why tribal sales are a problem as your law says
that the wholesalers have to do the collecting of the tax. When Washington
raised their tax a lot of their people now come to Idaho to buy cigarettes and
there are probably people from Montana also coming to Idaho for their
cigarettes. If Idaho raised their cigarettes $1.00 a pack it should be a win-win
situation for everyone. There may be loop-holes in the laws but <U>smart
</U>legislators would plug them!</DIV>
<DIV>I understand also that your higher taxes on cigarettes was a voter
approved tax passed in November.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Dick Schmidt<BR></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=dave@davebudge.com href="mailto:dave@davebudge.com">David M.
Budge</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=dickschmidt@moscow.com
href="mailto:dickschmidt@moscow.com">Dick Schmidt</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Cc:</B> <A title=vision2020@moscow.com
href="mailto:vision2020@moscow.com">vision2020@moscow.com</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Friday, April 01, 2005 1:36
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [Vision2020] Idaho Is Poorly
Managed by a bunch of Ignorant Republican Farmers</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>Dick Schmidt wrote:<BR><BR>"They had perfect opportunity to
fund education this past week with their CF (those who have been in the
military know what CF means) handling of the renewal of the cigarette
tax. Idaho has the lowest cigarette tax in the area and they should
have added $1.00 on to the tax for a total of $1.57 a pack for cigarettes and
used the money for education but no, these people are just too damn
stupid!"<BR><BR>Well Dick, Montana just instituted such a tax voted in
by referendum and guess what? Cigarette tax revenues are down $1 million
for the first two months of 2005 over 2004 before the tax was levied. This is
due in no small measure to the fact that, in both Montana and Idaho, we have
an abundance if tribal reservations where state taxes are not
collected.<BR><BR>As well, the tobacco tax is highly regressive in that the
great preponderance of people who smoke are in the lower income
brackets. So taxing the "poor" seems as though it would make getting an
education more difficult for those who need it to lift them up to a higher
economic strata.<BR><BR>I'll grant you that "these people are just too damn
stupid!", but there is nothing new in that. As I say, never underestimate the
stupidity of your government.<BR><BR>db</BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>