cigarette tax

The owner of a southwest Missouri discount tobacco store has filed a lawsuit challenging a proposed constitutional amendment that would raise the state's lowest-in-the-nation tobacco tax and create new fees for wholesalers of some cigarettes.

A group of Missouri gas station and convenience store owners is backing taxing cigarettes an additional 23 cents per pack.

Voters have again rejected a measure that would have sharply increased Missouri's tobacco tax of 17 cents per pack. Opponents say the increase would have sent people across state lines for cheaper smokes and cost Missouri millions in tax revenue...