MADISON, Wis.--The Wisconsin state legislature last week approved a two-year, $57.2 billion budget, which Governor Jim Doyle signed on Friday, ending the year's last state budget impasse in the nation, said the Associated Press.
The budget includes a $1-per-pack cigarette tax increase and an increase in the tax on other tobacco products (OTP) from 25% to 50% of the wholesale price, said the National Association of Tobacco Outlets (NATO) in an E-News Bulletin. There is a cap of 50 cents per large cigar, and moist snuff will be taxed at a rate of $1.31 [image-nocss] per ounce.
The current cigarette tax in Wisconsin is 77 cents per pack. Wisconsin had been one of only seven states that had not increased its cigarette tax in recent years, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
The governor had proposed a $1.25-per-pack cigarette tax increase and a 65.6% OTP tax rate. The new tax rates will take effect on Jan. 1, 2008. A floor stocks tax will be assessed on cigarettes and moist snuff only, NATO said.
According to Doyle, the cigarette tax increase will reduce smoking rates, and it dedicates new funds to pay the cost of tobacco-related illness and invests $30 million in smoking prevention and cessation programs.
Click here to view the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids' State Cigarette Excise Tax Rates & Rankings.
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