This was posted as a comment to the post and was prepared by one of our more perspicacious observers. It deserves open and serious consideration from all of us.
Peter has left a new comment on your post "Mayoral Candidate Speaks":
Mr. Thomson,
Let me start by saying thank you for reaching out to our little community of blogheads. I am hoping we can engage in some discussion and better understand your candidacy.
I'll be frank, your association with the QSRE makes me skeptical. I realize this may be unfair as we've never met (AFAIK) and I know nothing about you other than your name is attached to the QSRE and Stop The School crowd. In my experience, people can generally be judged by the company they keep, and in my opinion the QSRE/STS crowd is what this town does not need; they (or at least the most vocal among them) stand for stagnation, status quo, anti-progress.
That said, I am interested in knowing how you would improve Morrisville's position in the world. How did you feel about the Gateway project? How would you handle the legal wrangling of the proposed burlesque club? Smoke shops? In your mind, what are the top 3 things that are wrong with MV and how do we fix them? (notice the inclusion -- this is task for us all) What are the top 3 things that are RIGHT? And how do we capitalize on them? Have you read the 10 year improvement plan that was done last year? Please give us your thoughts on that.
If the other candidates are out there reading, I'd love to hear your responses too.
I suspect most of this blog readership will be voting in May and November. I know I certainly will.
Friday, April 17, 2009
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From today's Phila. Inquirer. Although smuggling's up, the silver lining for Morrisville's economy is that both NJ & PA are both plannning increases in the cigarette tax, but NJ's 12.5 cent increase (from $2.57 to $2.695/pack) is more than PA's 10 cent increase (from $1.35 to $1.45/pack). So the all-important tax differential, that perfect unseen hand of Adam Smithian market forces that figuratively steers the wheels of the vehicles that come from NJ to PA to get smokes, is actually increasing from $1.22 to $1.245/pack. Hallelujah!
Cigarette smuggling may be on the rise
By Allison Steele
Inquirer Staff Writer
Last month, the FBI charged two Brooklyn, N.Y., men with buying 15 cases of cigarettes from a New Jersey undercover agent who says he told the men the smokes were stolen.
Each case held about 600 packs on which no state tax had been paid, keeping the price down. If the alleged buyers had resold them on the black market, as the FBI says they intended, they could have hiked the price by at least a dollar a pack and still undercut New Jersey stores.
If they had resold them in New York, where the cigarette tax is the highest in the nation, they could have pocketed more.
In the end, authorities allege, the transaction could have netted the pair at least $9,000 for less than a day's work.
With Pennsylvania and New Jersey considering raising their cigarette tax, the already bustling black market could soon be even busier, law enforcement officials say.
Some criminal entrepreneurs resell cigarettes that - often illegally - have not had state taxes levied on them. Others buy them legally in places with lower taxes, then smuggle them across state lines and resell them for a profit. The wider the disparity between states' prices, say officials, the more the underground market thrives.
Cigarette-running is easy and can pay off big, said Charles Potts, an auditor with the Camden office of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. Smugglers can pull in more than $500,000 for moving one truckful, according to ATF officials.
"Do it right and it's like free money," Potts said. "It's the best thing since Prohibition."
New Jersey treasury officials declined to estimate how much tax revenue vanishes by way of illegal sales. A study put New York's loss in 2004 between $436 million and $576 million.
Though it has existed for decades, cigarette smuggling boomed about five years ago, when states started to raise tobacco taxes to close budget gaps.
New Jersey's tax has increased four times since 2002, most recently in 2006. Now $2.57 a pack, it is second only to New York's $2.75 levy. Pennsylvania's tax is $1.35, slightly above the national average of $1.21. Govs. Corzine and Rendell have proposed increases to address their budget deficits - 12.5 cents a pack in New Jersey and 10 cents in Pennsylvania.
According to state records, however, both states lost money the last time the tax was raised. New Jersey budget analysts say part of the reason was that smoking has become less popular and because the state banned indoor smoking around that same time.
Low-tax advocates, however, say revenue fell because area smokers have a better option: Delaware, which adds only $1.15 in tax per pack.
More smokers also started to buy untaxed cigarettes online (the Web sites counsel buyers to research whether they're running afoul of local tax laws) or at Indian reservations, where they are tax-free.
Smugglers from New Jersey, New York, and other high-tax states make runs to states such as South Carolina, which has not increased its 7-cent tax since 1977. They go from store to store and buy hundreds of cases, said Robert Irwin, a New Jersey agent with the ATF.
Others traffic in untaxed cigarettes - identifiable by the lack of a state stamp on the pack - that sometimes are stolen.
The enterprise is relatively low-risk, Irwin said. "You don't have to wait down by the docks for a shipment and get something smuggled in," he said.
Cigarettes bought in other states usually are repackaged to show counterfeit stamps for the state they're resold in. They're fenced to stores at a reduced price or sometimes traded for drugs, counterfeit goods, or weapons.
The counterfeit stamps "give this the appearance of legitimacy," said William Campbell, a senior agent with the ATF in New Jersey. It ensures that "no one's going to call in a tip on the store."
Federal tax, which also is levied on cigarettes, is paid when cigarettes leave the factory. And because many resold cigarettes start off lawfully purchased, tobacco firms make their fair share. Only states lose, authorities say.
Officials contend that smuggling would end if the states instituted a uniform tax, but most acknowledge that's unlikely to happen.
Anthony and Eugene Degidio, the men arrested last month, were charged with federal conspiracy to receive stolen goods and conspiracy to buy and sell stolen goods.
The Degidios have not been indicted. Their attorneys declined to comment on the charges.
According to the FBI, meetings took place in December between the Degidios and a federal undercover agent from Newark, N.J. The three met in Atlantic City, according to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court, and the agent twice sold them unstamped cigarettes he claimed had been stolen from Virginia.
The Degidios were among 26 people arrested in an FBI sweep that targeted alleged crime organizations operating in countries including the United States, Albania, Macedonia, Kosovo, and Serbia. Most are also accused of trafficking in drugs, weapons, or other counterfeit goods.
Authorities have struggled to crack down on smuggling. State law enforcement agencies regularly inspect stores that sell cigarettes and conduct undercover stings. Cigarette smugglers often are arrested in connection with drugs or weapons operations.
If convicted, smugglers - who are charged with anything from money laundering to trafficking contraband - face fines and of up to five years in federal prison.
"It's like drugs and gangs," Irwin said. "The difference is it's not as violent as the drug world, and the penalties aren't as harsh. And the money can be much greater."
John Bender: I like those earrings, Claire.
Claire Standish: Shut up.
John Bender: Are those real diamonds, Claire?
Claire Standish: Shut up.
John Bender: I bet they are. Did you work for the money to buy those earrings?
Claire Standish: Shut your mouth.
John Bender: Or did your Daddy buy those for you?
Claire Standish: [shouts] Shut up!
John Bender: I'll bet he bought those for you. I bet those were a Christmas gift. You know what I got for Christmas? Oh, it was a banner ******* year at the old Bender family. I got a carton of cigarettes. The old man grabbed me and said, "Hey, smoke up Johnny." Alright? So go home and cry to your Daddy. Don't cry here, okay?
Good movie.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8E_zMLCRNg
Hey, hey, hey ,hey
Ohhh...
Won't you come see about me?
I'll be alone, dancing you know it baby
Tell me your troubles and doubts
Giving me everything inside and out and
Love's strange so real in the dark
Think of the tender things that we were working on
Slow change may pull us apart
When the light gets into your heart, baby
Don't You Forget About Me
Don't Don't Don't Don't
Don't You Forget About Me
Will you stand above me?
Look my way, never love me
Rain keeps falling, rain keeps falling
Down, down, down
Will you recognise me?
Call my name or walk on by
Rain keeps falling, rain keeps falling
Down, down, down, down
Hey, hey, hey, hey
Ohhhh.....
Don't you try to pretend
It's my feeling we'll win in the end
I won't harm you or touch your defenses
Vanity and security
Don't you forget about me
I'll be alone, dancing you know it baby
Going to take you apart
I'll put us back together at heart, baby
Don't You Forget About Me
Don't Don't Don't Don't
Don't You Forget About Me
As you walk on by
Will you call my name?
As you walk on by
Will you call my name?
When you walk away
Or will you walk away?
Will you walk on by?
Come on - call my name
Will you all my name?
I say :
La la la...
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