Proposed Cigarette Tax to Have Local Impact

The proposed cigarette tax on the November 6th ballot will have both positive and negative local impact. On the positive side, the school will get more money from the initiative, which will not go into the Funding Formula like the rest of the tax dollars are. On the other hand, it will mean that the cost of tobacco will go up.

Casey's and Country Corners in Grant City both get business from Iowa residents who go across the border to pay cheaper taxes for tobacco. Missouri currently has one of the lowest tobacco tax rates in the country. Cheralee Pointer, manager of the Grant City Casey's, said that passage of the amendment would not hurt Casey's that much since Missouri's tobacco tax rate would still be lower than Iowa's. But she noted that there were certain categories, like alcohol and tobacco, that were always a favorite target of taxes and that there were other areas that could have been targeted by this measure.

Jon Adwell, Worth County Principal, said that anything that generated money for the school was a good thing as long as the money was being spent as designated. He expressed concern that the legislature might turn around and take out funds elsewhere and have the new tax offset that; the legislature did something similar after the Lottery was passed in the 1980's.