Massachusetts Stores Charge Cigarette Tax Increase Before it Went into Effect

 Massachusetts legislators really, really wanted to increase the cigarette tax and they wanted to do it as soon as possible. So much so that stores began to charge the extra $1.00 a pack before it was even signed into law.

A legislative snafu threw the state’s cigarette tax hike into chaos yesterday, leaving some smokers fuming that they had to pay the extra buck a pack even before the plan was signed into law.

Revenue-desperate lawmakers planned for the tax bump to go into effect at midnight Monday, but Gov. Deval Patrick didn’t sign it until late yesterday afternoon. Some stores quickly started charging the extra fee anyway,

 Revenue desperate lawmakers? Why are they revenue desperate? Because they spend money they don’t have and when the bill comes do, it is time for the tax collector to come a-knocking.

 Lawmakers in Massachusetts fast tracked this bill through because they were so anxious to screw the taxpaying politically incorrect smokers out of even more money. They fast tracked it so much so that even the tax and spend governor couldn’t sign the tax increase fast enough. Knowing Deval Patrick, he was probably out of state trying to secure his cabinet position once Barack Obama is elected president and couldn’t get back to fuck over the smokers quick enough.

 But that didn’t stop many stores from charging the tax before the tax became law. But it wasn’t really the store’s fault, they were told that it didn’t matter when the bill was signed, the tax was to go in effect on July 1st.

We were told that it was effective this morning,” Fitzgibbons said. “We were told that it doesn’t matter if (Patrick) signs it next week; the law is July 1. We did what we were told.

 A retroactive tax. It is just a technicality in Massachusetts when the bill gets signed, but if it is going to get signed, why wait until it is signed? Especially when it involves fleecing the people out of more money.

 Governor Patrick cleared up the whole mess (not) today by saying that the government will take the extra dollar that some stores charged but will not punish those that did not charge the extra tax.

 So yes, the tax did go into effect whether the governor signed the bill or not, but in typical Deval Patrick style if you didn’t obey the law there are no consequences.

 Read more here.