Cigarette taxes send smokers from other states into Missouri

Kenny Behm lives in Illinois but works in Cape Girardeau.

So once a week on his way back home he stops at a Cape Girardeau gas station or cigarette store to pick up a carton of smokes.

He could wait until he got to the other side of the Mississippi River bridge, but then he'd have to dish out between $10 and $15 more for the same product.

This fall it might not matter which side of the river Behm buys his cigarettes on -- they could cost the same.

Missouri voters may have the chance to raise the state cigarette tax by 55 cents a pack, from 17 cents to 72 cents, or leave the tax alone in November. Election officials are in the process of determining if supporters of the tax increase have turned in enough signatures to get the issue on the November ballot.

If passed, the tax is expected to generate $342.6 million annually, with a majority of those revenues earmarked for health-care treatment and smoking prevention programs.

Brad Ketcher, a spokesman for Citizens for a Healthy Missouri, said the tax increase would bring Missouri's tax structure into line with other states. He said the vote is about health, not about taxes.

But David Overfelt, a lobbyist for the Missouri Retailers Association, disagrees.

"These folks aren't concerned about the retailers," Overfelt said. "They simply want to single out smokers because a majority of people don't smoke. It's an easy way to raise money. I don't think it has one thing to do with the health of citizens."

Overfelt has filed a lawsuit challenging the proposal's ballot summary and cost estimates. The lawsuit was rejected in Cole County, but an appeal has been filed.

Going West

Customers have been standing in lines at a Fisca store in West Alton, Mo., just across the Mississippi River from Alton, Ill., since the Illinois cigarette tax rose 40 cents to 98 cents per pack on July 1.

"We're posting big numbers now. It's really been crazy," said Shawn Brown, cigarette sales manager at the store. "We've always had a lot of customers from Alton, but now it seems like anyone who lives within 30 miles is coming over."

Brown said the store hadn't tallied its exact cigarette profits since July 1, but he expects them to almost double from June's figures.

The price differential is also making a difference in western Missouri, where stores selling cigarettes along the Kansas border are profiting from that state's decision to increase its cigarette tax.

Steve Barber owns two discount cigarette stores in Overland Park and Shawnee, Kan. He began planning his next venture the moment Kansas lawmakers started talking during the last legislative session about a dramatic increase in taxes on cigarettes.

On July 1, the day the tax took effect in Kansas, Barber opened his Cigarettes 4 Less store on the Kansas City, Mo., side of State Line Road, the high-traffic street dividing Kansas and Missouri. The store is only 5 minutes from his Kansas stores, and smokers from that state are making the drive over.