Cook County added $1 to its already exceptionally high cigarette tax March 1, making Chicago cigarettes the second most expensive in the nation. New York City‘s tax is the highest. Cook County expects $25.6 million from this new tax hike which will be put towards Cook County hospitals and medical centers.
Cook County Board president Toni Preckwinkle said of the tax hike: “It will bring in needed revenue to our public health system while lowering smoking rates and preventing people from picking up the deadly habit.” Evidently, Cook County officials believe that the tax increase will only reap benefits for Cook County residents in regards to public health and raising much-needed money for medical care.
Some DePaul students who have picked up the smoking habit cannot help but agree with Cook County‘s decision to raise the cigarette tax. “Although I am a cigarette smoker and I do not like having to pay a lot for cigarettes, I think increasing the taxes on cigarettes is…justified,” said DePaul student Mary Paluska. She continued, “I think… the hopeful outcome of increasing the taxes (is) decreasing the amount of smokers in interest of public health.”
However, according to DePaul Economics Professor Thomas Mondschean, the tax is unlikely to make a significant difference in the purchase of cigarettes. He concedes that the tax “may reduce some smoking” but insists that “cigarette demand is not very sensitive to…price.” He believes that, ultimately, the tax “will…raise revenue.”
Mondschean went on to say that “the money that is expected to be raised by the tax increase is less than one percent of the total budget for Cook County,” however, it should “help them to avoid other cuts in spending.” Therefore it would appear that the tax will not have much of an impact on reducing the amount of smokers in Chicago but it will, in all likelihood, contribute a somewhat substantial amount of money to the county’s budget.
Some people believe in the aims of the new tax but, nevertheless, consider it to be unrealistic and impractical. DePaul student William Weinberg conceded that the tax is “justifiable,” however he believes that the government did not think “critically” about it. Weinberg insists that “suppression leads to resistance.”
As evidence of this fact, Weinberg stated that he and some of his friends “have plans to make runs to Indiana for (cigarette) cartons.” Thus, it would appear that Chicago‘s new tax will not raise quite as significant an amount of money as President Preckwinkle anticipates. This is due to the fact that many of Chicago‘s smokers intend to simply purchase cigarettes outside city limits. In all likelihood, the tax will do no more than inconvenience and anger Chicago-area smokers and, perhaps, put a little more money in Cook County‘s pocket.
