Smokers avoid cigarette tax

Kentucky budget officials predict a nearly 20 percent decline in revenue from the cigarette tax this year. That adds up to millions in lost revenue. But that doesn't mean fewer people are smoking.
For every pre-packaged cigarette you buy in Kentucky, 60 cents goes straight to the state.
But if you buy the tobacco itself, along with paper to roll your own, you avoid the so-called sin tax and still get to smoke.
Kane Dycus of "Cigarettes For Less" said more of his customers are passing up pre-packaged cigarettes. They're buying pipe tobacco and rolling their own.
"It's five dollars a pack of cigarettes versus four dollars for this," Monica Whalen said.
To Whalen it just makes sense.
"This lasts him probably a week to where a pack of cigarettes last him probably a day," Whalen said.
But to customer Sue Kadow it doesn't make quite as much sense.
"It's messy and aggravating and it takes time," Kadow said.
"Rolling your own" is too much trouble for her. She'd rather pay the taxes, although taxes tick her off.
"They really have it out for the smokers. We dont pick on the drinkers or drug addicts or obese people," Kadow said.
She said the state is picking on smokers and that it may backfire if more people ditch the cartons and start rolling their own.
"When you're addicted, you dont care what you smoke as long as you smoke," she said.
Kentucky's cigarette tax isn't that expensive when you compare it to some of the other states. The average tobacco tax is $1.46 per pack.
Missouri's tobacco tax is one of the lowest in the nation, at 17 cents per carton.