Topeka KS – It could cost more for Kansas smokers to light up in the future.
Today, Governor Mark Parkinson said he'll consider a tobacco tax increase in the coming legislative session if state tax revenues don't improve.
"If we don't need to increase revenue, if we can meet our budgetary needs without increasing taxes, we won't increase tobacco taxes just for the sake of increasing them," Parkinson said. "But if we need the revenue, we'll look at it."
Some estimates have put next fiscal year's budget deficit at more than 500 million dollars.
The legislature last voted to increase the state's cigarette tax in 2002 by fifty-five cents per pack.
The current cigarette tax sits at seventy-nine cents per pack.
