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Experts see hope in tobacco tax hike in Oklahoma
TULSA — A nicotine fix is about to get a lot more expensive — if it hasn’t already.
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Federal taxes on tobacco products will increase substantially April 1. Revenue from the tax increase, estimated at $32.8 billion annually, will pay for an expansion of children’s health care coverage.
Smokers who roll their own cigarettes will take the hardest hit. The tax on that type of tobacco will rise from about $1.10 per pound to $24.78 per pound.
Taxes on cigarette papers and tubes also are going up — from 1 cent per 50 for papers to 3 cents, and from 2 cents per 50 for tubes to 6 cents.
Industry sources say the increases will virtually eliminate the financial advantage of rolling cigarettes instead of buying manufactured smokes.
"It’s been the least-expensive way of smoking, but it won’t be anymore,” said Mark Clymer of Ted’s Pipe Shop in Utica Square.
Name-brand cigarette smokers already effectively are paying the 62-cent-per-pack hike on their favorite smokes because the nation’s largest manufacturers, including RJ Reynolds and Phillip Morris, raised prices by as much as 75 cents per pack earlier this month.
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