YOUR COMMENTS

??Acting Revenue Administration Commissioner Margaret Fulton ?? Acting is a great description because what she just did should get her an Acadamy Award for fraudulantly allowing this Tax Increase to go through!!!! Missed by less than Yes LESS than 1% (400k +/-) and then invoke a 20 MILLION surcharge for 400 Thousand $$$$ short is a DISGRACE to Humanity Smoker or Not. If this happened on a Gas or Meal TAX how many people would be screaming right now??????????? All of you Non Smokers would. I hope they find a Tax for Non-Smokers ONLY!!!!!!!!!!!
- E J, Manchester

Wow - touchy subject!
- Chris, Goffstown, NH

I agree with Sue. If smokers are losers because of an addiction, then fat people are losers for being addicted to food.

So, to all you fat "losers" out there... I hope they raise the taxes on Big Macs. Thanks for the insight, Bill. Oh, and if you're fat and smoke!? What does that make them Bill? I already forgot if Bill was the OP's name..... Thats how pointless his comment was.
- Johnny, Manchester

Do not tell me that the Insurance Co. want people to quit because most insurances do not cover any prescriptions to help people quit smoking because they really don't want you to quit because then who would pay all the taxes. If they really cared they would cover it. I have great insurance but it doesn't cover that. Sounds fishy to me. Also Larry from North Hampton do you drive a car. Do you know how much pollution cars make? By the way all my butts go in the ashtray and I do agree with you that people shouldn't litter. They shouldn't litter anything.
- Joanne, Manchester

Is it just me or has NH raised all kinds of taxes? I find that gas in Massachusetts is equal to or in many cases cheaper than NH now. I find myself shopping, going to restaurants and buying gas in Tyngsboro, Westford and Chelmsford, Mass more often these days. I go to the 99 for example in Westford instead of Nashua because with the 5% meals tax in Mass, it is less than NH's 8%...many good restaurants across the border in Tyngsboro now. With cigarette taxes going up and up, I see little to no incentive now for Mass residents to go to NH to buy gigs and gas and milk etc. They can do just as well in Dracut, Lowell, Chelmsford etc. The Dems are rapidly turning NH unto Massachusetts North.
- Larry, Nashua

I can't count the number of times I have seen piles of butts in mall parking lots, hundreds of butts on the road at traffic lights. Smokers throw butts out car windows rather than use the ash tray (do manufacturers put ash trys in cars today). Discarded butts are everywhere.

You don't have to be a chemist to know that the filters on butts are not organic materials - they won't breakdown harmlessly and disappear.

Smokers should be paying an environmental impact tax on top of the existing taxes.
- Larry, North Hampton

Go to the mall and you will be surrounded by addicts, food addicts. Ever notice how many fat people there are? Are they not a burden on our health care system? Why aren't we taxing McDonalds and Pizza Hut? Singling out one group to tax for the benefit of all is wrong, plain and simple. It's a money grab by lazy legislators who are too incompetent to come up with a fair plan.
- Bill, Manchester

Bill- anyone who is addicted to food is most likely obese. Should we raise the prices for the food ONLY they buy? I think you are really simple minded and by calling people "losers" is despicable. Why don't you write the tobacco companies and complain to them?
- Sue, Antrim, NH

Wow! If you call a smoker a loser they get really mad! Too bad these fools will never face the facts. They don't want to hear how 99% of them become a burden to the health car system and their family when their body gets destroyed from their "loser" behavior. They don't want to hear how many smoker spend $ on their "addiction" instead of food and clothing for their kids. They don't want to hear anything but their own agenda. So smokers when you get nasty when your called a loser look in the mirror ,with that so important cigarette hanging from your mouth ,and ask yourself am I really a loser?
- Ted, Manchester

The increase of tax on smokers is intended to fund the general state budget which we ALL incurr by living in the state.

Why should we single out a particular group and force them alone to pay everyone elses tax debts.

Its wrong, its unAmerican and its patently unfair.
- Paul E, Hillsboro, nh

There has always been one goal and one goal only for those that pushed for the constitionally illegal smoking ban and that has been to pave the path to an income and/or sales tax. That's all this has been about. While, no doubt, there have been supposed well meaning, save people from themselves grassrooters out there that really believed this was about peoples health, they were used as pawns to pass a bill that would all but ensure the eventual passage of an income/sales tax. They knew full well that revenue would go down and thus give them the exact excuse they will use to raise even more taxes on all of us....not just the "sinners". Just like the dems overprojecting revenues and spending away based on their false projections. They knew full well but knew there are enough gullibles to buy it. Wait and see folks. Other peoples money is so easy to spend that enough will never be enough for these tax and spend types. Easier to do when they have us pitted against each other - smokers against non-smokers, rich against poor, the healthy against the unhealthy. Ask yourselves, when is enough, enough? When 100% of your income and freedom is stolen by govenment "for the good of everyone"?
Suckers. Just stinks the rest of us have to go down with you. God help us all.
- Deirdre' Taylor, Goffstown, NH

I wish they would jack the prices of cigars so my husband would stop smoking them.
He is either going to burn the barn down or himself one of these days. I have banished him from anywhere near the house.
I think they smell worse than cigarettes!
- Kristine Macchioli, Laconia

"People that smoke aren't losers, they are addicted". But people who are addicted ARE losers. They failed to heed the overwhelming amount of constant messages that it's addictive and bad for you, and started anyway. Now boo-hoo they're addicts -- their fault.
- Bill, Berlin

I don't think that people that smoke are losers. I understand that they are addicted. However, there are so many products out there, RX's included, to help someone quit that being addicted is no excuse not to quit. There is no excuse. I know it is hard, but get some help for it. Just like anyone else with an addiction would. I completely agree with this new tax because if you choose to smoke, you should pay the price. If they don't tax that, they will tax something else like gas, and that is something we all need. We shouldn't all suffer because of smokers that don't want to pay the money for their habbit. If you don't like it, then quit.
- Sarah, Manchester

It is so frustrating to listen to NH tax payers claim they are placed under such a tax burden. In a recent study NH was 49 out 50 states in state/local tax burden per capita. The National Average is 10.1% and NH is 7.4%...we have it pretty good.

State revenue has to be generated from somewhere. I hear a lot of comments that we need to control spending. I question that we do not spend enough but that is b/c we do not generate state revenue. NH does not support schools, welfare (child support) or road repairs like our neighboring states. In addition these alleged corrupt state politicians (state senators) are not paid and volunteer their time to "screw everyone".

If you do not like the new tax contact your local politician and make your voices head b/c using these forums to claim you are being targeted does not change anything. Maybe the smokers would prefer a repeal to the new tax and replace with a state wide income or sales tax? If I was impacted I would rather pay $.25 than 5% of my income every paycheck.
- Ryan M., Manchester

I love how non-smokers can be so ignorant. Some people started smoking long ago. Look inside any respected medical journal, a legal subtance that is harder to quit then heroin. You jump all over people and call them losers because they smoke. I sure hope the person that could save your life one day isn't a smoker, wouldn't you look stupid? People that smoke aren't losers, they are addicted. I'm sure you don't know a single person that smokes and that is the only reason you could say something like that. I am a former smoker, it took many tries and a lot of help and willpower from friends and families. I certainly didn't consider myself a loser. I went to college and got an education, I hold a steady job, and support my family. Please, if you are going to be so ignorant to post a statement like that, you are the loser yourself.
- Andrea, Concord, NH

Bill from Berlin is right. We are all sick of the the addicts thinking they have special rights. Their a burden on the health car system and we all pay higher insurance because of them. Smarten up losers!
- Tom, Manchester

And Bill, you're a loser for being so narrow-minded to think that people who believe differently than you makes them something less. We are being taxed to the max now on EVERYTHING. There are taxes on food and water already - it's called a sales tax or a rooms & meals tax. What do you propose, we stop eating to send a message to lawmakers? Yeah, that's it, let's all go on a hunger strike, then when we all die off, there will be no one left to tax!!!
- Sara H., Concord, NH

I think this is great. You're a loser if you're addicted to anything but water, food, and air. If you smokers want to send a message to the lawmakers, then quit.
- Bill, Berlin

"Fulton said yesterday tobacco revenues came close, less than $500,000 short of the $50 million goal." How about an amendment to the law that states if the projected revenue comes within one million dollars of required amount set and requested, there will be no tax increase. Those in Concord can hold off tax increases if they control the spending and/or regulate where revenue is given priority so it can be adjusted from one line item to another to keep taxes low or maintained. Lower spending equals lower taxes. As a candidate for State Representative these are some of the things I would do from day one if elected to office. Rule #1: Taxpayers/citizens first. Rule #2: Party favoritism? Refer to Rule #1.
- Robert M Tarr, Manchester