Chicago May See Cigarette Tax Hike

CHICAGO -- By one vote, Cook County commissioners tentatively approved an 82-cents-a-pack increase in the cigarette tax Tuesday, and although final adoption is likely, the cigarette tax increase won't be official unless it carries over into the county's 2004 budget, expected to be voted on in the next few weeks, The Chicago Tribune reported.

The increase would mean that beginning April 1, smokers in Chicago could expect to pay a combined $2.53 a pack in city, state, county and federal taxes. The county's share would be $1, up from the current 18 cents a pack, according to the newspaper.

The tax increase passed 9-8, with Commissioner Earlean Collins casting the swing vote in favor of the increase. Collins cautioned, however, that she would withdraw support when the issue comes up for a final vote if she is dissatisfied with negotiations over the final shape of the $2.99 billion budget proposed by John Stroger, Board President, the report stated.

The board is scheduled to vote on the amendments Feb. 23. The county's fiscal year began Dec. 1, but passage of a new budget has been stalled over lack of support for John Stroger's request to authorize a lease tax on cars and other equipment, as well as to increase the county sales tax by 0.25 of a percentage point, The Chicago Tribune reported.

The 17-member board, meeting as a whole as the Finance Committee, had been scheduled Tuesday to vote on the sales tax increase. But the committee's chairman, John Daley, did not call for a vote because Collins said she would not support it, leaving the administration one vote short.

Increasing the cigarette tax was not part of Stroger's initial budget plan, but Commissioner Roberto Maldonado pitched it as an alternative to the lease tax arguing the increase would cause people to quit smoking, reducing the county's health-care costs and raising new revenue, the report stated.

Retailers who testified Tuesday said the increase will force more smokers to buy cigarettes in Indiana, where taxes are lower, or in collar counties, and some said they might be forced to lay off workers as a result.

The tax increase is expected to generate an additional $32.3 million in 2004, said Barbara Bruno, the county's revenue director in the newspaper report. The county had already expected $37 million based on the 18-cent tax. Bruno said the projections were the administration's best estimates of the expected drop in cigarette sales.

"Anywhere you live in Cook County, you are 30 minutes from buying cigarettes somewhere else," said Bruno.