EVERETT – Jim Hanson made his weekly pit stop at Smokin’ Sam’s a bit earlier in the week than usual.
Michael V. Martina / The Herald
On Thursday, he picked up two 10-pack cartons of cigarettes – one for himself, one for his wife. That’s about $80 worth of smokes.
If he’d waited until today, he would have shelled out $12 more.
Thanks to new Washington state taxes that take effect today, cigarettes cost 60 cents more a pack.
“I usually wait till I’m out, but I didn’t wait this time,” Hanson said.
Hanson was part of a steady stream of customers who came by the cigarette store on Rucker Avenue to stock up on smokes, or at least to buy an extra pack, before the new taxes took effect, store clerk Alan Haynes said.
“It’s busier than usual,” he said.
Haynes’ customers were also a bit edgier than usual.
One customer walked in and picked up a pack of cigarettes. Haynes gave him his quick spiel for the day: “Cigs are going up tomorrow, you know.”
The customer let out a quiet expletive under his breath. He ended up buying only one pack anyway.
Besides the cigarette price increase, today’s new taxes mean drinkers will pay a dollar more for each fifth of liquor they buy, and drivers will pay 3 cents a gallon more for gas.
At the state-run Silver Lake liquor store, manager Brandon Sexton said there was a noticeable increase in the number of customers buying liquor on Thursday.
“Especially this morning, and especially with elderly people – because it’s a considerable increase,” he said.
State Liquor Control Board spokesman Bob Burdick said liquor sales are up overall this year, but he didn’t know of any large increases in the last week.
“There’s no reports from stores of spree buying or people buying before the prices go up,” he said.
But Sexton estimated that between the new taxes and the Fourth of July holiday, sales were up by as much as 25 percent Thursday. The Silver Lake store saw increases in many nonregular customers and people who buy 21/2 gallons to stock up for six months.
Many customers were buying bigger bottles or buying double what they normally would, said Don Perkins, who works at the liquor store.
“Everybody’s here basically because of the price increase,” he said.
Bobby Grant, a south Everett resident who doesn’t buy liquor often, said he was thinking of stocking up after hearing that the prices would go up today.
“That definitely may make a difference for me,” he said.
With the help of the tax increases, lawmakers passed a $26.1 billion two-year budget in April. The liquor, cigarette and gas tax increases will help raise $483.4 million in the next two years for education and transportation.
The tax increases will provide state workers with their first raises in four years, restore federal cuts in mental health care, sustain 100,000 people on the state’s Basic Health Plan, reduce classroom sizes and boost college enrollments.
Democrats said they could not pay for those programs and balance the budget without tax increases. Republicans disagreed, but the Democratic-controlled Legislature prevailed.
At Smokin’ Sam’s, customer reaction to the tax increase was mixed, Haynes said.
“Responses are varied, it goes from, ‘Yeah, well we have to pay more taxes,’ to the other extreme, which is people who are appalled,” Haynes said. “And personally, I’m appalled.”
The clerk said the Legislature wasn’t doing its job, because it made smokers pay far more than their share.
He added that people may find ways to get around the taxes, such as illegally buying cigarettes online or rolling their own. But they won’t quit smoking, Haynes said.
“There’s a lot who are frustrated, just very frustrated,” he said.
Reporter Chris Collins: 425-339-3436 or ccollins@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
