So on April 1st the DC Government imposed a new tax of 12% on cigars. Here is the catch, exempted from the tax are pipe tobacco and “premium” cigars, defined in the law as a cigar that costs more than $2. The new tax was created to increase the cost of inexpensive tobacco products to discourage young people from using them. To me, this is bogus. It’s just another way for the “man” to keep the poor people down. It’s the hard working, below middle to middle class folks who either can’t afford or don’t want to buy premium cigars that this new tax exploits. If you’re going to make a new tax, have the tax affect the entire cigar population and not just a certain class.

City leaders expect the new tax to generate $120,000 in new city revenue from April 1 through Sept. 30, the end of the current fiscal year.

The council’s legislation earmarked the additional fiscal 2006 revenue in equal $30,000 allocations to the Metropolitan Police Department for capital improvements at the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Washington’s Camp Brown, the D.C. Public Library for the Francis Gregory regional library on Alabama Avenue in Southeast Washington, the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission for the Washington D.C. Sports Alliance, and the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services for the Peaceoholics group.