Business Owners Oppose Cigarette Tax Proposal
Published on Wed, 04/28/2021 - 12:00am
There are no tax increases in Rockbridge County’s budget for fiscal year 2022 that was approved Monday by the Board of Supervisors. Consideration is being given, however, to a cigarette tax that, if approved as presented, would take effect halfway through the fiscal year.
Several owners of county retail outlets that sell cigarettes have come out in opposition to a proposal to establish a 30-cents-a-pack tax starting next Jan. 1. The tax, said Ubaid Kazi, owner of two local convenience stores, “will drastically affect my businesses.”
When customers learn cigarettes are more expensive here than in neighboring localities, said Kazi during a public hearing Monday on the proposal, they’ll take their business elsewhere, including their purchases of nontobacco products. He urged the supervisors to “please” not impose the tax. “We’re trying to get through the COVID recession. [With the tax], we’ll see more decline.”