CENTERVILLE, Iowa — And there was thunder, thunder over Thunder Road
Thunder was his engine, and white lightning was his load.
There was moonshine, moonshine to quench the Devil’s thirst
The law they swore they'd get him, but the Devil got him first.
———
There is a great chase scene in the 1958 movie Thunder Road, where Robert Mitchum runs a gauntlet of feds in his moonshine-filled hot rod.
While the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) might have been hot on Mitchum’s tail for his cargo of 100 proof, local cigarette smugglers aren’t going to see ATF agents chasing them up Highway 5 from Unionville, Mo., unless they have a world-record addiction.
More than 60,000 cigarettes need to illegally cross a state line before it enters the radar of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. That’s 3,000 packs or 300 cartons of cigarettes - much more than even a two-pack a day habit would need at one time.
And even though Iowa Code says it is against the law to bring more than two packs of cigarettes into the state, it is unlikely Iowa law enforcement officers will be busting anyone for a couple cartons of Missouri Marlboros.
Renee Mulvey, media contact for the Iowa Department of Revenue, doesn’t think illegal cigarettes will remain that big of a problem except for the communities sitting right next to state borders.
When Iowa first began looking at a jump in cigarette taxes two years ago, her department contacted other states that had increased their own tobacco fees.
Mulvey said that cigarette sales at first decreased in those states, but rebounded in several months. It’s common sense, she noted, that with the price of gasoline, it doesn’t pay to drive too far.
She also noted that violators of the law are not arrested. If they find consumers with out-of-state tobacco, the cigarettes are seized and violators are billed for the unpaid cigarette taxes. They can also be fined $200 if there is a large amount of the product, Mulvey said, say more than 1,000 cigarettes.
Appanoose County Sheriff Gary Anderson said enforcement of the two-pack limit was not a top priority with his department and they would not “actively be going after violators.”
“Yes, if we stopped someone and the whole entire car was packed with cigarettes,” he said, “we’d probably confiscate them and notify the Department of Revenue.”
He added that if the governor wanted to pass the new tax so bad for the additional revenue, he could hire his own enforcement agents.
And area residents are flocking across the border to Unionville to buy cheaper smokes. Iowa taxes jumped last week from 36 cents per pack to $1.37. Missouri has one of the lowest state cigarette tax rates in the country at 17 cents.
An employee at the Casey’s General Store in Unionville said her convenience store saw a “very big increase” in cigarette sales, beginning the very day the tax hike began in Iowa.
She noted most of the Iowa customers complained about the tax increase and said they’d be back. And while there, she said, they purchased “lots of other stuff.”
At the Unionville Hy Vee, an associate said they’ve been selling “quite a bit more” in cigarette cartons. And while the Iowans are in the store, he said, they do pick up a few other items.
The salesperson at Bob’s Food Mart said they’ve also sold quite a few more cigarettes since the Iowa tax tobacco increase, though he hadn’t noticed an increase in sales of other items.
Cigarette sales haven’t jumped at Willy’s Bottle Shop, said the woman answering the phone. She noted that they only sell by the pack and not the carton, so the Iowans leave and “go on down the road” where they can buy in mass.
In Cincinnati, Appanoose County’s front line when it comes to being close to the border, an employee at Konvenience Korner said sales have been a bit down for tobacco, but not a great deal. She related she has heard some customers grumbling about the tax increase and making carton forays into Unionville, but believes they’ll return to buying their cigs locally because of the convenience.
an Ehl writes for the Daily Iowegian in Centerville, Iowa.
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March 23, 2007
