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Cigarette Taxes And Toy Bears

Stories
Proper 10 | Ordinary Time 15 - C
Luke 10:25-37
Timothy F. Merrill
Lectionary Tales For The Pulpit
Series IV Cycle C
Come July 1 of every year, new laws go into effect in many states across the country. Legislators, having done their work, have gone home, and all the laws they thought up in committee and on the floor of the chambers became law weeks or months after they've gotten out of town.

So what is written in the law? Some states choose to boost the so-called "sin" taxes. Cigarette taxes, for example, went up by 49 cents in Vermont, 46 cents in Kansas, 40 cents in Indiana, and 31 cents in Ohio. New Jersey, last I heard, was considering a 70-cent bump.
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