TOPEKA, KS - The Kansas Senate widely defeated a measure last week that would have increased the state??s cigarette tax by $1 per pack, The Morning Sun reports.

The move runs counter to efforts by Gov. Mark Parkinson, who earlier this year proposed the increase as necessary to helping plug the state??s budget shortfall.

The Morning Sun attributed much of the opposition to border county legislators, who recognized the border bleed that such an increase would have produced on its tobacco retailers, which ultimately would have produced a revenue shortfall.

"They go over and buy their cigarettes in Missouri and then they get their gas and milk over there and we lose that potential tax revenue," said state Rep. Bob Grant.

Look for a NACS Magazine story that addresses the effects of convenience store cigarette sales in border states with higher and lower tax rates.