So the Cigarette Tax Hasn’t Gone Up Again…Yet

By Jim on October 2nd, 2008

And from the Nashua Telegraph we get the gist of what happened:

Last minute tax receipts on Tuesday may have derailed a 25-cent increase in the cigarette tax according to state officials.

Receipts from the $1.08 per pack tax had fallen at estimated $2.4 million short of a $50 million benchmark for keeping the existing tax rate. State law mandates automatic increases in the tax if receipts do not reach specific levels.

The Legislature had given the grocer and tobacco lobbies the chance to avoid a 25-cent tax hike if they generated $50 million during the first quarter.

If not, the tax was to go up to $1.33 on Oct. 15.

But two giant tobacco tax wholesalers wired in tax payments of more than $3 million to State Treasurer Katherine Provencher less than 90 minutes before a 5 p.m. deadline Tuesday. If those receipts are properly logged in, the tax brought in more than the desired number during the first quarter and the tax would remain at $1.08 per pack.

Lynch administration officials said the payments weren’t logged with the Department of Revenue Administration that leaves the issue in doubt.

What a freaking mess. Even with the “financial crisis” going on in the country, New Hampshire should not have been reduced to this mess. It doesn’t sound like Governor Lynch’s people know what the heck is going on.