NH, RI, NJ Buck Trend, Propose Cigarette Tax Cut

[Laomi]

NH, RI, NJ Buck Trend, Propose Cigarette Tax Cut : NPR

I found this article interesting. I don't worry as much about a ban on e-cigs, as I do the government realizing they can tax them. I really believe taxing will occur before a ban will. Since a ban will only push the product underground, but taxing is their answer for everything.

 

[Our House]

Bucking a national trend of raising cigarette taxes, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Rhode Island have considered reducing theirs, hoping to draw smokers from other states and increase revenue.

Two questions here:

1) Why in the world are State Goverments publicly expressing interest in anything other than reducing the amount of smokers in their State?? They're not supposed to be aligned with BT, or with keeping/increasing the number of smokers.
2) I thought it was illegal to transport cigarettes (by that I mean living in one state and traveling to another to buy cigarettes to bring back home) across state lines without paying the relevant taxes*. How can the State Gov'ts be counting on the revenue of customers from other states? They are actually promoting such a thing?

*I know everybody does it, but that's obviously not the issue here.

 

[mwa102464]

This is a duplicate thread mods please combine