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[ INDUSTRY NEWS]
Mississippi looking at cigarette tax increase
In January, the Mississippi Senate gave the green light to increasing the state's current cigarette excise tax of 18 cents per pack, reported the Associated Press.
The Senate approved increasing the current cigarette excise tax in exchange for a reduction, and eventually the elimination, of the state's 7-percent grocery sales tax on groceries and most other retail items.
Mississippi has one of the lowest cigarette tax rates in the United States at 18 cents per pack. The Senate-passed bill would increase the rate to 75 cents per-pack on July 1, and then to $1 per pack on July 1, 2007.
If the measure does pass both chambers, it will likely face a brick wall in the governor's office. Gov. Haley Barbour does not support a tax increase on cigarettes, or any tax increases in general.
"I'm against raising anybody's taxes," Barbour said. "Period."
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