Illinois committee approves $1-per-pack increase of cigarette tax

An Illinois Senate committee on Wednesday approved an additional $1-a-pack tax on cigarettes, with the money earmarked for the state's troubled infrastructure.
The measure now moves to the full Senate. Previous attempts to raise the state's cigarette tax in recent years have failed.

Proponents say it would raise more than $300 million a year once the full tax is in place after two years, while tamping down smoking and related medical costs to the state.
The committee heard testimony that smoking-related illness costs the state some $1.8 billion a year in Medicaid expenses program alone.
Opponents say it would cost Illinois retail business, especially in border areas like the Metro East, as smokers cross the border in search of cheaper smokes and buy other items while there.
"You're talking about extracting $300 million in revenue out of our economy" from people who will pay that tax to the state instead of spending it spur economic growth, argued state Sen. Bill Brady, R-Bloomington.
Missouri has the lowest state cigarette tax in the nation, at 17 cents a pack. Illinois' current state cigarette tax is 98 cents a pack, which is in the midrange of cigarette taxes nationally.
Illinois' new capital improvement program — a landmark $31 billion infrastructure rebuilding plan — is in trouble because the revenue the Legislature was counting on to fund it is being held up.
The state's new liquor tax is being challenged in court, and its approval of taxable video gaming in bar and restaurants statewide hasn't gotten off the ground because of delays in setting up the rules, and resistance from local communities.