Tobacco taxes vary wildly across Potomac

Virginia, despite joining its counterparts across the Potomac in banning smoking in bars and restaurants, stands apart in its refusal to levy heavy taxes on the sale of cigarettes.
The state takes 30 cents out of every pack of cigarettes, a pittance compared with Maryland and the District and a reminder that the Old Dominion is far from uprooting its tobacco history.
While lawmakers agreed this year to the unprecedented restriction on where someone can smoke -- a victory for Gov. Tim Kaine -- the General Assembly nevertheless shot down Kaine's effort to double the cigarette levy to pay for skyrocketing Medicaid costs.
Virginia until five years ago had almost no tax on cigarettes, charging only 2.5 cents per pack. The increase to 30 cents in 2004 was the first since the tax was enacted in 1960.
That levy is the third lowest cigarette tax in the nation -- higher than only Missouri and South Carolina -- and less than a tenth of Rhode Island's highest-in-the-nation $3.46 per pack charge, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Maryland doubled its tax to $2 per pack in 2007. The D.C. Council matched that tax in 2008, and this year upped the ante to $2.50 a pack.
Virginia lawmakers' reluctance to follow suit is no doubt linked to the tobacco industry's presence in the state. Altria -- the parent company of tobacco giant Philip Morris -- is headquartered in Richmond and is a major campaign donor. Tobacco ranked ninth last year among the state's most lucrative agricultural products, bringing in $83 million, according to the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.