Ooooooooh… This one might hurt if it actually passes.

Washington State legislators are pondering two bills that, if passed, could increase taxes on cigars by whopping 500 percent.

HB 2493 and SB 6443 in the State House and Senate respectively would boost the state tax to $3.02 per cigar. Right now, the tax is 50 cents per cigar.

Both bills would also increase taxes on cigarettes and other smoking products. Seattle Times Columnist Danny Westneat says the reason for the increase is to boost state coffers and to curb smoking.

Westneat puts the notion of the proposed cigar tax this way: “. . .even hell has its levels. Charging three bucks a cigar is downright greedy — an affront Dante assigned to hell’s level 4, a notch or two more damnable than where he put the casual sinners (the lusty, the gluttons, probably the smokers).”

Dale Taylor, sales manager at Rain City Cigar in Seattle, put it more simply, telling KIRO Radio that “taxing less than 3 percent of the population is not the answer.”