Quit stealing our tax revenue.

Sayeth the Legislators.

On Tuesday, the Senate Health and Human Resources Committee advanced a bill (SB514) that would require establishments that provide machines to manufacture roll-your-own cigarettes to collect and remit state cigarette taxes, at the rate of 55 cents for every 20 cigarettes produced.

"These machines are designed and the business plan is set up to avoid [paying] cigarette taxes," he said. "If this bill passes, it will level the playing field as it pertains to the state excise tax on cigarettes."

Besides evading the $5.50 a carton state tax, the roll-your-own outlets also avoid about $10 a carton in federal excise taxes, Hamsher said.

Deputy Revenue Secretary Mark Muchow told the committee the department estimates that the roll-your-own outlets account for about 2 percent of all cigarettes purchased in the state, costing the state somewhere between $500,000 to $750,000 in lost tax revenue.

http://www.wvgazette.com/News/politics/201202210171

And just what does the Legislature do with that $25 million to $37.5 million in tobacco tax money it collects each year? Does anyone really know?

Or does anyone but the smokers really care?

And just as soon as someone figures out how they are going to do this:

require establishments that provide machines to manufacture roll-your-own cigarettes to collect and remit state cigarette taxes, at the rate of 55 cents for every 20 cigarettes produced

Please let me know.

A bunch of money hungry idiots driving this train and its headed for a trestle that is just about to collapse into a big red hole of unfundable debt.

And when that happens the "troughfeeders" are literally going to go bananas by burning everything in sight and pillaging whatever they think they are entitled to.

So, my advice to you,