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Italiano New York – A Pack of Cigarettes costs over 10.00 dollars
The Governor of the State, David Paterson, reached an agreement with the State Legislature to increase the taxes on each pack of cigarettes by one dollar and sixty cents (1 euro and 30 eurocents).
The Governor of the State, David Paterson
The least expensive brand, including state and federal taxes, will cost smokers more than ten dollars (about 8 euro e 50 cents) for 20 cigarettes.
In the United States, the single State takes in the entire amount when it increases taxes, even from Marlboros. The Italian “Minimum tax”, on the other hand, increases taxes on some brands and does not touch others, limiting, in this way, the income of the Italian State; this is unknown and inconceivable across the ocean.
New York’s measure will bring every year an additional 440 million dollars into the treasury of the State of New York. In Italy, a tax increase of 1 euro and 30 cents multiplied by the billion and a half packs sold every year would add six billion euro a year to the coffers of the State.
In the U.S., Philip Morris apparently does not have the power that it has in our “Belpaese”. Here squalid career personages, present in all the political forces, unknown to the citizens, act as “mediators” between the interests of the State and the interests of the big multinational Tobacco producers.
In America, there are people and organizations that fight the Big Tobacco; they do not miss a chance to make public the crimes and the thefts of the cigarette manufacturers. Marlboro’s ammonia-added scandal is emblematic: the Washington Post headlined: “Foreign cigarettes are more healthy” and the Associated Press wrote “Ammonia, the key to Marlboro’s Success”. In Italy, this issue was meticulously censored so as not to damage Philip Morris.
What would happen in America if the Government were satisfied earning only half of what it could, imposing a tax that only the little ones have to pay, and exempting the big ones?
What must our American colleagues think of our Italian politicians, who search everywhere to find a formula that will not disturb the business of the “boss” - Philip Morris, allowing it to earn profits like a tax collector?
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