Michigan in Top 10 for Cigarette Smuggling

Once again, Michigan made the top ten list…for smuggling cigarettes.

You can always count on government — any government — to go to the well once too often. That's exactly what Michigan has done in the over-taxation of cigarettes.

According to a new Mackinaw Center for Public Policy Report, one out of every four cigarettes smoked in this state came from outside the state. Michigan charges $2 a pack in taxes, and a pack costs about $8 per pack.

I quit 21 years ago. At those prices, I'd have saved $123,000 by now!

While Michigan is bad, New York is the worst — the tax alone is $4.35 a pack. It's no wonder that New York is No. 1 in smuggling cigarettes into the state.

I don't think it's a good idea for anybody to smoke, but it's legal, and it just seems wrong for states like New York and Michigan to stick it to smokers.

Smokers are definitely a wheezing minority and on the wrong side of any and all public opinion. What are the smokers going to do about it? Well, drive to Indiana or place an order online, that's what. And not only does it end up costing the state a quarter-of-a-billion in tax dollars, we get more crime and just as much medical cost as a result.

Michigan would do better to set the rate at a buck a pack, like Indiana, and not be so darn greedy. What do you think?