SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- Illinois Senate president John Cullerton (D) is expected to call for $1-a-pack increase in the state cigarette tax to avoid missing a road construction season, reported The Chicago Tribune. The call by Cullerton comes after a state appellate court in January tossed out the law that authorized a $31 billion construction package and with it the liquor tax increase and video poker legalization that were to pay for it, said the report.
The judges ruled lawmakers bundled too many topics in one piece of legislation to pass constitutional muster. [image-nocss] The ruling is on hold while the Illinois Supreme Court hears the case filed by Rocky Wirtz, the owner of a liquor empire and the Blackhawks hockey team. Wirtz opposed the higher liquor tax, the report said.
Aides told the newspaper that Cullerton remains confident the high court will overturn the ruling.
Cullerton wants to add $1 over two years--50 cents each year, beginning July 1, 2011--to the state's current 98-cents-per-pack cigarette tax, according to a separate report by Illinois Statehouse News. (Watch the video below or click here.)
(Also watch the video below orclick here for Republican State Senator Matt Murphy's response, from Illinois Statehouse News.)
A Cullerton spokesperson told the Tribune that a Senate vote could come this week.
The Senate approved a cigarette tax hike during the previous General Assembly, the report said, but the state House voted it down (click here for previous CSP Daily News coverage).
Meanwhile, in North Carolina, anti-smoking advocates want to raise that state's cigarette tax by $1 per pack, reported the Associated Press. North Carolina's current cigarette tax is 45 cents per pack, one of the lowest in the country. The state last raised the cigarette tax two years ago, when it was increased by 10 cents a pack.
Republican legislative leaders say they have no plans to raise taxes, and that includes tobacco and alcohol.
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