US: Minnesota Retailers Fired Up Over Cigarette Tax Hike

Source from:  National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS)  03/28/2013

Convenience store owners challenged a cigarette tax hike proposal by Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton at a town hall meeting earlier this week, Minnesota Public Radio reports.

The retailers said that the governor's plan to raise the cigarette tax by 94 cents a pack will send their customers to bordering North Dakota.

"When you lose those tobacco customers, those guys and gals that come in every single morning and get their coffee, their pop, they buy their gas, they buy their car washes...we're all of a sudden looking at running our business on 75%-60% of our customer base. And that's pretty tough to do," said Frank Orton, owner of 15 convenience stores.

Dayton said the tax is designed to deter smoking, though he told Orton that he is willing to consider adding tobacco products to legislation that equalizes taxes for businesses located along state borders.

"If people can go across the river and buy their cigarettes in Fargo for whatever less the tax difference is it's obviously undermining the intent of our raising the tax at all because they can just go over there and not be affected by it," Dayton said.

Dayton has scheduled additional town hall meetings in St. Cloud and Rochester. Enditem