It could soon cost you more to light up a cigarette in Virginia. One state delegate wants to raise the cigarette tax, and use that money to lower the car tax.
47th District Delegate Patrick Hope (D) wants to raise the cigarette tax from the current 30 cents a pack to the national average - $1.45 a pack.
Eight percent of that money would go to programs that help people quit smoking and the other 92 percent - about $265 million annually - would go to cutting the car tax in half.
Hope said, "What we're really giving legislators is a choice. Do they support big tobacco and their profits, or do they support continuing the car tax? I think it's an easy choice."
Philip Morris, one of the world's largest tobacco companies, calls Richmond home. Delegate Hope's bill last year to raise the cigarette tax to pay for Medicaid failed in committee.
