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NE: Is cigarette tax a done deal?

By   /   September 20, 2012  /   18 Comments

Dave Nabity

Joe Jordan | Nebraska Watchdog

OMAHA—Another day another voice against a cigarette tax to pay for a cancer research center.

But will it matter? Is the deal already done?

Nebraska Watchdog’s Joe Jordan reports.


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Joe Jordan

  • Rodney Callahan

    Nabity is a self-imposed nag. I don’t listen to him because he has no credability nor any authority. He keeps the podium in the trunk of his car for those “can’t miss an opportunity to bitch” moments.

  • http://www.Vernon-J.com/ Vernon J

    Rodney you don’t take an opportunity to talk about something that is important to you?

  • racefish

    At least those of us that don’t smoke will not have to worry. Only the poor people who do, and basically that’s the group that does smoke, will end up paying. Other than that, they will be going across the river. Gas and cigarettes will be on their buy list.

  • Jazzee

    well Joe is the deal done? sounds like you know…what a cheap way to raise money on the backs of a few again yet this is supposedly going to help so many..maybe for smokers treatment should be free

  • Stopmom

    Regardless of your personal views about smoking, whether you smoke or not -everyone pays this tax. Tobacco users budget their household expenses just like everyone else, they don’t simply quit. It is an addictive habit. When the tax goes up, tobacco users simply do with less of something else or cut it out of the household budget completely. So local business takes it in the shorts because tobacco users are going to spend less and keep their cigarettes. Multiply that by all the taxes that have been dumped on cigarette smokers over the years and you’ve got quite a bit of money going into local governments’ pockets and not spent on products or services where everyone works. It’s a very quiet robbery. Taxes like this hurt the local and national economy regardless of whether you smoke or not. So anyone who says, I don’t smoke, I’m not paying this tax is not looking at the big picture.

  • Joe Sixpack

    This proposed tax is not nearly high enough. It should be at least a dollar or two per pack, not 35-cents. It should also be a state-wide, not just in Omaha.
    Medicaid pays for many tobacco illnesses that the smokers’ tax doesn’t cover because it is too low. I’m tired of picking up the medical costs for smokers who work for the city, county and state. They should stop hiring people who smoke and make the rest of us pay for their medical and disability payments.

  • Stopmom

    Well Joe, you can’t just tax everyone who does something you don’t agree with. If you don’t stand up for the rights of others soon this type of “Health Tax” will continue and it might just be something You enjoy that a study finds unhealthy, I’m guessing by your name that’s either drinking a six pack or lifting weights. And that study will be taken as proof that we should tax all workout facilities, workout DVDs, sports equipment, etc. and stop kids from participating in little league because they end up with concussions and broken growing bones. And trust me on this one, that study will come from a Medical Center who needs more funding.
    Plus dumping a tax on cigarettes has only made them a valuable commodity. As the tax has risen, so have the violent robberies all over the city. Let’s hope you don’t have a relative that gets in the way as cigarettes become more and more valuable. Just saying, open your eyes (and your heart) and watch what’s going on around you, people.

  • Stopmom

    I should point out my comment is to Joe Sixpack (below) not to Joe Jorddan.

  • Hunyock

    Nabity is just hoping to score some points in this. He has no experience in dealing with any budget balancing on any scale near the size of the city’s. If the city had 3 or 4 million laying around every year, the budget would be easy. He is just another wannabe politician feigning outrage to gain support.

  • Better late than never?

    You have to love how Dave Nabity swings in well after most of the others have laid out their positions. Has he even really announced yet? Other than to the ten people who heard his pre dawn radio show?

  • Rodney Callahan

    Vernon, I do take time to talk about things that are important to me as I’m sure you also do as well as everyone else does. I just don’t pretend that I’m a policy maker like Nabity does. He a snake-oil salesman.

  • http://www.Vernon-J.com/ Vernon J

    Thanks Rodney,

    Dave is just like you & me. He just happens to get the media to his events.

    Vernon J
    422 N. 40th St.
    Omaha, NE 68131
    402-516-4401

  • Rodney Callahan

    Vernon, I don’t think he’s like either of us. I’ve met Nabity a couple of times and narcicist kept coming across my mind.

  • Charlie

    This is amusing. Stothert says “don’t tax citizens for economic developement”.
    Then she must take a stand against TIF financing for projects because that is exactly what it is. So Mean Jean, come out against TIF.
    Nabity, he will vaporize in the campaign. He is a clown. As Joe said, “late to the party”, and he never did produce any evidence of criminal behavior against fire fighters. BLAH BLAH BLAH. You’re right Dave, the city does have 1% to spend on this project. It can be your street that doesnt get plowed this winter and your pot holes that don’t get fixed.

  • Watching_From_Lincoln

    Or they quit buying the expensive premium brands and smoke the cheaper generics, as many of my smoker friends did the last time the State raised its cigarette tax.

  • Watching_From_Lincoln

    Really, racistfish, basically only poor people are the ones that smoke? You have any FACTS to base that stereotype on? I see and know PLENTY of middle and upper income people that smoke, too.

  • Watching_From_Lincoln

    There’s really no reason to complain about a raise on the cigarette tax. Go to ANY major metropolitan city like Chicago, San Fransisco, New York or Washington D.C. and cigarettes are $7-$9 a pack at the convenience stores and bodegas. A state-wide increase on the cigarette tax wouldn’t be a bad idea to help fund this, but not for the reasons Sixpack was complaining about necessarily.

  • racefish

    Middle income people are continuing to reduce their smoking. They are more inclined to take care of themselves and exercise. True, there are those who still smoke but for the most part, consumption is going down.