The governor of Connecticut is calling for a number of tobacco tax increases as part of his budget proposal for FY 2019 that was released on Monday.
While Connecticut taxes tobacco products such as cigars at a rate of 50 percent of the wholesale price, that has been capped at 50 cents per cigar. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has proposed an increase in that cap from 50 cents per cigar to $1.50 per cigar, which is forecast to bring in an additional $2.9 million in revenue.
For a cigar with an MSRP of $9.50, the change would mean that cigar would go from $10.50 to $12.50 by halfwheel estimates.
Additionally, the governor is calling an increase in the cigarette tax from $4.35 per pack to $4.60 per pack, which is said to bring in an additional $20 million. A floor tax on cigarettes would also be implemented to generate approximately $2.8 million, while e-cigaretes would be subject to a tax of 75 percent of the wholesale price, which would bring in $8.5 million.
Malloy proposed a similar increase last year, only to see the tax rate left unchanged when the budget was finalized in the fall.