State Cigarette Excise Taxes: 2007

Cigarette Excise Tax Rates (in $) and State Ranking
Cigarette excise tax facts

Cigarette Excise Tax Rates (in $) and State Ranking
As of March 2007

New Jersey 2.58 Illinois 0.98

Rhode Island 2.46 New Mexico 0.91

Washington 2.025 California 0.87

Michigan 2.00 Colorado 0.84

Arizona² 2.00 Nevada 0.80

Maine 2.00 New Hampshire 0.80

Alaska¹ 1.80 Kansas 0.79

Vermont⁵ 1.79 Wisconsin 0.77

Northern Marianas 1.75 Utah 0.695

Montana 1.70 Nebraska 0.64

Hawaii³ 1.60 Wyoming 0.60

South Dakota 1.53 Arkansas 0.59

Massachusetts 1.51 Idaho 0.57

Connecticut 1.51 Indiana 0.555

New York 1.50 Delaware 0.55

Minnesota⁴ 1.493 West Virginia 0.55

Texas 1.41 North Dakota 0.55

Iowa 1.36 Alabama 0.425

Pennsylvania 1.35 Georgia 0.37

Ohio 1.25 Louisiana 0.36

Puerto Rico 1.23 North Carolina 0.35

Oregon 1.18 Florida 0.339

Oklahoma 1.03 Kentucky 0.30

Guam 1.00 Virginia 0.30

Maryland 1.00 Tennessee 0.20

D.C. 1.00 Mississippi 0.18

Missouri 0.17

South Carolina 0.07

Cigarette excise tax facts

The federal cigarette excise tax is $0.39 (as of January 1, 2006).
At least ten states, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oklahoma, Oregon and Utah, use cigarette excise tax revenue to fund their tobacco control programs.
The U.S. Center for Disease Control & Prevention estimates that smoking-caused health costs total $7.18 per packed sold and consumed in the United States.
According to the CDC, for 1997-2001, cigarette smoking was estimated to be responsible for $167 billion in annual health-related economic losses in the United States ($75 billion in direct cost and $92 billion in lost productivity), or about $3,701 per adult smoker.
Adolescents and young adults are more responsive than adults to changes in cigarette prices.
Increasing a cigarette excise tax can result in stockpiling of cigarettes prior to the implementation of the tax and a temporary drop in sales immediately following the tax increase.

Sources:

NCSL Staff Research, March 2007.

Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, State Cigarette Excise Tax Rates & Rankings, March, 2007.

Federation of Tax Administrators, State Excise Tax Rates on Cigarettes. January 2007.

State Legislated Actions on Tobacco Issues: 2005; The American Lung Association.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Fact Sheet: Economic Facts About U.S. Tobacco Use and Tobacco Production. Updated March 2007

Reducing Tobacco Use: A Report of the Surgeon General, Department of Health and Human Services; Office of Smoking and Health; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2000.

Footnotes:

1. Additional $0.20 increase effective 7/1/07.

2. Effective 5/1/07.

3. Additional $0.20 each year until 2011.

4. Includes $0.75 Health Impact fee.

5. Additional $0.20 increase effective in 7/1/07.