1
MAY

Cigarette Tax Increase Legislation by State

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Received this info from RJR's my smoker's rights website:

Aside from the $1.00 per pack excise tax increase already passed and signed into law in Iowa, major activity is expected in the following states on the cigarette excise tax issue:

Connecticut - The Joint Public Health Committee has passed a bill that would raise the cigarette tax by 31 cents per pack. But hearings before the Joint Finance Committee will be important in determining the final tax proposal.

Indiana - A 25-cent cigarette tax increase was defeated in the state House by a 52-44 vote but is pending in the state Senate and being strongly advocated by the governor. One hundred smokers and retailers from southern Indiana held a rally at the State Capitol opposing this tax.

Maryland - The Maryland House of Delegates has voted for a $1 increase. However, the President of the state Senate is publicly opposed "in principle" to the tax hike advanced by the House.

New Hampshire - Legislation proposing increases of 28 cents and 50 cents per pack have been introduced and are being pushed by the governor. Since New Hampshire's legislature meets into the summer, final votes on new taxes might not occur until late June.

Oregon - The governor's proposal for an increase of 84.5 cents per pack has not come up for a hearing in the House Ways and Means Committee. Oregon's budget enjoys a $2.5 billion surplus.

South Carolina - A subcommittee in the House passed a bill by a 2-1 vote to increase the cigarette tax by 30 cents per pack, the amount of taxation called for in the governor's budget proposal. However, there is strong opposition to the new tax in both the House and the Senate.

Wisconsin - The governor has proposed increasing the cigarette excise tax by $1.25 per pack. Action on this tax bill will likely be later in the session since Wisconsin's legislature meets both in the summer and the fall.

Other states where legislators will likely hold serious debates on excise taxes are: Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Tennessee.

Smoking Ban Legislation Debates on the Horizon in Key States

Idaho - A bill to ban smoking in bowling alleys was vetoed by the governor but was quickly overridden by wide margins in both the state House and Senate.

Illinois - The Illinois Senate has passed a bill that bans smoking in most public places including restaurants, bars and clubs, and senators expect the state House to do the same. However, the governor says he prefers the status quo which allows local communities to decide their own smoking policies.

Maryland - The Maryland legislature has passed a new law banning smoking in nearly all public places. The bill is now awaiting Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich's signature.

Minnesota - The state Senate has passed legislation which bans smoking in nearly all public places including restaurants, bars and taverns. When the bill is debated by the House, there will be an effort to exclude bars and clubs from the bill, but passage for these exceptions is unlikely.

Virginia - After much back and forth between the General Assembly and Governor Tim Kaine, state leaders failed to change the current statewide smoking restrictions that permit businesses of a certain size to allow smoking if they provide separate smoking and non-smoking sections. Gov. Kaine had attempted to ban smoking in all restaurants by amending a legislature-approved "restaurant signage" bill that simply required eateries to post signs if they allow smoking. The General Assembly rejected the governor's amendments and sent the original "signage" bill back to him for a second approval. The Governor eventually vetoed the bill leaving the legislature without an opportunity to override. Therefore, there were no changes to the existing language.

New Mexico - Gov. Bill Richardson signed a new law banning smoking in nearly all public places including restaurants, clubs and bars. Tobacco manufacturing facilities are exempt.

North Carolina - A bill which would ban smoking in nearly all public places including restaurants, clubs, bars and taverns has received a positive vote in the House Health Committee and has been scheduled for a floor vote. However, strong opposition from business owners, farmers and smokers has caused the author of the bill to reconsider.

Pennsylvania - Legislation which calls for a total smoking ban statewide including all restaurants, bars and clubs has passed in a state Senate committee. A strong coalition against the ban includes the National Federation of Independent Business, bowling proprietors plus bar and tavern owners.

Texas - A Texas state House Committee held a six-hour hearing on a bill which would ban smoking in nearly all public places including restaurants, bars, clubs and taverns. A companion bill has been filed in the Senate.

Other states where smoking restriction bills will be debated seriously during the 2007 session include: Wisconsin, Oregon, Nebraska, New Hampshire and Iowa.

Early State Legislatures Adjourn

Several states, mostly with smaller populations, have already adjourned the 2007 session of their legislatures including Wyoming, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland, Idaho, Kentucky, Georgia, Washington, New Mexico, South Dakota, Mississippi and Utah. Legislation to raise cigarette excises taxes failed in all these states, and smoking restriction bills did not pass with the exception of the statewide smoking ban in New Mexico and in Maryland where a smoking ban bill is still pending the govenor's signature.

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1
APR

Nonsmokers Benefit from Smokers

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Written By: Gerald Prante
Published In: Budget & Tax News

Publication Date: January 1, 2007
Publisher: The Heartland Institute


Some economists note that any health care cost imposed on society by smokeless tobacco or any other product is technically a transfer that has been created by government through a quasi-socialized health care system.

In addition, they note, while it is commonly assumed that individuals' unhealthful habits must necessarily impose health care costs on society, this is not at all the case. A field of economics known as social cost accounting attempts to discern the aggregate fiscal effects of different types of behavior, and its findings are often counterintuitive.

Smoking, for example, has been found not to impose health care costs on nonsmokers. To the contrary, current federal, state, and local fiscal regimes have been found to transfer tens of billions of dollars from smokers to nonsmokers.

See, for example, Patrick Fleenor, "Who Bears the Ancillary Cost of Tobacco Use?" Tax Foundation Background Paper, No. 36 (January 2001), available online at http://www.taxfoundation.org/news/show/121.html.

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19
DEC

Kalifornia At it again...

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SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California lawmakers will take up a bill that would add a $1.90 tax to each pack of cigarettes sold in the state, an effort that may gain political momentum if the new U.S. Congress puts the spotlight on health care, analysts said on Monday.

California lawmakers will also consider at least two other bills aimed at smokers and, by extension, tobacco companies.

One of the bills would impose a fine for smoking in an automobile if children are in the vehicle. The other would ban smoking at state parks and beaches.

The bills come on the heels of last month's rejection by voters of Proposition 86, which would have slapped a $2.60 tax on packs of cigarette to raise funds for health-care programs.

Despite that defeat the bills may get sympathetic hearings in Sacramento, the state capital, as Republican Gov. Arnold and the Democrat-led legislature have said they would make health-care financing a priority next year.

Don Perata, the state Senate President Pro Tem, has already proposed a bill to require Californians with jobs to carry health-care insurance, paid for by employees and employers. Schwarzenegger said it was "fantastic" that Perata had put forward a proposal so early.

With Republicans handing off control of the U.S. House of Representatives to Democrats next month, Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers are angling for a role in an anticipated national discussion about health care and its costs, said Jack Pitney, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College.

"The issue is gathering momentum at the national level," Pitney said. "You have Democrats taking control of Congress, which means the national leadership will press the health-care issue much more strongly than Republicans did when they had control. ... Also, people continue to struggle with health-care costs. A visit to the doctor isn't getting any cheaper."

A part of those bills could be picked up by smokers, increasingly a target of regulation at the local level in California, Pitney said.

Towns and cities across the state have in recent years passed ordinances restricting where smokers may light up. Parks have been placed parks off limits with some municipalities considering bans of smoking in all public places because of growing concerns about the effect of second-hand smoke on nonsmokers -- a major reason why smoking has been banned at work in the state.

"In California, there have been smoke-free work places for years," said Bronson Frick, associate director of Berkeley, California-based Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights.

The bill in the state capital to raise cigarette taxes is not guaranteed success. Republican lawmakers in the legislature's minority are hostile to any proposed tax increases and many Democrats are reluctant to back a sin tax that would fall disproportionately on the poor.

Tobacco interests will actively lobby against a tax hike, throwing considerable funds into the fray.

"There was a lot of voter confusion with the tobacco companies spending nearly $100 million to defeat Prop 86," Frick said, noting how much critics of the ballot measure spent.

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