Ill. lawmakers look to raise cigarette tax again

The AP reports:

One of Bill McCloskey's gas stations used to sell 110,000 packs of cigarettes a month before a $2 Cook County sales tax kicked in three years ago. Now it sells 17,000.

Then the cost went up again, thanks to a 62-cent federal tobacco tax increase April 1. That's dropped McCloskey's cigarette sales another 12 percent from last April.

Now, with a pack of smokes topping $9 in at least one city, state lawmakers are considering another tax hike of $1 over two years.

You might say the Laffer Curve affect does show up at the local level.