Editor’s Note: This is madness.
From: Reason
NYC Mayor Encourages Cigarette Smuggling with Plan to Massively Jack Up Prices
City with highest cost per pack also has highest bootlegging rate. Imagine that.
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By sheer coincidence (if you are completely ignorant to even the most basic concepts of economics), New York has the highest rate of cigarette smuggling in the country. Though figures are hard to nail down—black markets, being what they are—stats suggest that more than half of all cigarettes are being sold illegally and untaxed in New York.
Bootlegging of cigarettes (and alcohol, also highly taxed in New York) costs the state nearly $2 billion in tax revenue each year. Why, de Blasio’s plan is almost insidiously libertarian—to deprive the state of tax revenue by pushing more and more people to participate in the black market instead of paying exorbitantly high, market-distorting costs for goods. (Small correction/clarification here: De Blasio isn’t raising the taxes on cigarettes because that’s actually under the control of the state. These are price controls. I’ve updated some subsequent sentences to reflect that.)
