Well, It Looked Good on Paper... (border, cost, Massachusetts, money)

[carterstamp]

What the eff????

Wouldn't the cost of driving to these states pretty much blow any tax savings out of the water??

NH, RI, NJ buck trend, propose cigarette tax cut


NH, RI, NJ buck trend, propose cigarette tax cut | Comcast.net (http://www.comcast.net/articles/finance/20110318/US.Lower.Tobacco.Taxes/ - broken link)

CONCORD, N.H. — Bucking a national trend of raising cigarette taxes, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Rhode Island have considered reducing theirs, hoping to draw smokers from other states and increase revenue.

...Smoker Aaron Evans stopped Thursday at a convenience store in Haverhill, Mass., for a sandwich and a pack of Marlboro cigarettes. The pack cost him $7.13. A couple of miles away, a bigger pack of the same smokes would cost him $5.99 at a market in New Hampshire, which already has significantly lower taxes than Massachusetts.

Evans, 25, welcomed any move to make smokes cheaper but said a dime a pack wouldn't make him change his buying habits.

"You gotta average it out," he said. "I could either drive all the way over to New Hampshire and waste the gas — it kind of evens it out."

[Toyman at Jewel Lake]

Cities near the WA-ID border make a lot of money from people escaping WAs punitive taxes on cigs. It makes sense.

[Calvinist]

I can see people driving across the state line...or when they are there for another reason, pick up several cartons.

[carterstamp]

Will it add or deplete the tax revenue?