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LETTER: Smokers are people too, you know 

It seems like every day another disease is linked to smoking. Also, it smells terrible. I have watched the disgust on people’s faces whenever they have walked behind someone taking a drag.

But just because my olfactory receptors are occasionally violated doesn’t mean I am going to hop on the crusade against smokers.

In America, the rights of people in a minority are often ignored or abused. . . .

The worst of all are the taxes on cigarettes. Someone always points out that every time a tax increase is passed revenue goes up and smoking declines. It seems completely unethical to raise funds from people doing something they can’t help but do. By the same logic, we could fight diabetes by raising the taxes on insulin. Think about it.

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Mobile health leaders back higher taxes on cigarettes by $1 a pack  

The Mobile County Board of Health is offering support for state officials who are pushing to raise arette prices in Alabama by $1 a pack.

Alabama's present tax is 42.5 cents per pack, according to Meagan Newsom, a media coordinator with Just Breathe, Smoke Free Mobile County. Only three other states have lower such levies, she said.

The highest cigarette tax is in New York state, where a single pack costs upward of $10, and more than $11 in New York City.

"They have been able to reduce the smoking population there because of that," Newsom said. "If we went up to $1.42 (in taxes) we would then be meeting the national average."

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Omaha Time Capsule: Cigarette tax stamps here  

What happened in the Midlands on this day? Here's a sampling from the World-Herald archives.

CIGARETTE TAX STAMPS HERE

Feb. 7, 1946: Four million cigarette tax stamps arrived at the City Hall. Finance Commissioner Carl Jensen and Comptroller Charles Stenicka announced, "Cigarette tax stamps are now on sale." The 2-cent-per-package question, however, was: Would the stamps make their debut in Omaha February 15th as scheduled? Messrs Jensen and Stenicka said there was nothing at present to prevent the proposed tax from going into effect. In the week to come, however, there was to be a court hearing on whether the city should be prevented from placing the tax in effect.

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Roll-Your-Own Cigarette Shop Crackdown Continues With 2 More Stores Sued 

The city's Law Department has filed two more lawsuits against stores that exploit a perceived loophole in the city's obscene cigarette tax law. You'll recall that New York Smokes, a retail tobacco outlet on Staten Island, was making bank selling customers loose tobacco, which is taxed at a far lower rate than cigarettes. Customers would then roll their own smokes in the store using cigarette stuffing machines, walking out with a pack for about $6--far less than the average $13 price. But then the city cracked down on that enterprise, and now the guv'ment is going after two more shops. . . .

Michael McGowan, the owner of Victory Tobacco, tells us he plans to fight the city. "We're not doing anything illegal," insists McGowan. "Why did they give us a license if we're illegal? We just rent machines so people can make their own cigarettes. We do not manufacture cigarettes. And the excise taxes are paid by the supplier of the tobacco, Fresh Choice tobacco."

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• Gov. Patrick, anti-tobacco lobby refute Norquist’s claims on taxes 

Grover Norquist, the national anti-tax advocate whose no-new-taxes pledges have infuriated the left and captivated the right, trained fire on Gov. Deval Patrick this week, calling his recently unveiled proposal to raise the state cigarette tax a job-killer and as likely to worsen smoking problems as it is to solve them.

"A particularly misguided aspect of the governor's executive budget is the bevy of lifestyle tax increases that will adversely impact the state's economy, hurt small businesses, and frankly, serve as a unnecessary annoyance that Bay State residents will remember as they head to the voting booths later this year," Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, wrote in a recent letter to Bay State lawmakers.

Patrick batted back the assertion Monday, telling reporters that his tax proposals are sound and well-supported by Massachusetts residents.

"I know of Grover's longstanding opposition to any tax and how much evidence there is to refute claims just like that," he said before a State House meeting with legislative leaders. "We've made these proposals before. We're making them now because they're reasonable, they're very popular among the general public and they help us deal with the cost of public health and other kinds of services that people need."

Patrick's gentle rebuke of Norquist comes six months after the governor blasted him in a Washington Post op-ed, calling him "the brain and able spokesman for the radical right" and labeling his anti-tax pledge a "gimmick."

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• State Economy to Get Big Jolt with Proposed New Tax on Cigarettes, Study Finds  

A new UCSF analysis has found that a state ballot initiative to increase the cigarette tax would create about 12,000 jobs and nearly $2 billion in new economic activity in California.

The study found that the new tax would have a significant effect on the state’s overall economy because Californians would smoke less and spend their money in other ways.

The initiative, the California Cancer Research Act (CCRA), is on the statewide June 5 ballot. If the measure is approved, state cigarette taxes would rise by $1 a pack, generating an estimated $855 million a year for anti-smoking education programs, medical research, and tobacco law enforcement.

“The primary impact to the California economy, besides the effect on health care, is that people will smoke less and send less money out of state,’’ said study author Stanton A. Glantz, PhD, a professor of medicine at UCSF and director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education based at UCSF.

Currently, approximately 80 percent of money spent on tobacco products is exported to out-of-state tobacco manufacturers and farmers. No tobacco is grown in California and no cigarettes are manufactured here.

Under the legislation, 60 percent of funds generated by the new tax would go to cancer research and to address other tobacco-related diseases, 20 percent toward tobacco cessation and prevention programs, and 15 percent toward facilities and equipment for health services and research. The remainder would go to law enforcement to reduce cigarette smuggling and tobacco tax evasion, and to administer the tax.

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Mass. smokers cough up more for pack of cigarettes under proposed tax hike 

Bay State residents would have to pay an extra 50 cents in taxes for cigarettes under Gov. Deval Patrick’s proposal that would help generate $260 million in revenue for the Commonwealth’s new budget.

Massachusetts currently has a $2.51 tax on each pack of cigarettes, so the proposed law would increase the tax to $3.01. The last tax hike came in 2008 when the Legislature increased the tax from $1.51 to $2.51 per pack.

Senate President Therese Murray, who would help determine if a cigarette tax increase passes once initiated, declined to comment to The Daily Free Press on Monday.

“The Senate can’t initiate a tax,” she said in an interview with The Boston Herald. “We’ll see what the House does as they prepare their budget.”

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Cigarette rolling machine controversy 

A controversial new machine is popping up in Bay State stores and it helps smokers roll their own cigarettes and makes lighting up a whole lot cheaper.

A pack of cigarettes goes for nearly $10, with roughly $2.50 in state taxes. The new "roll your own" machines eliminate the state tax. A carton of hand-rolled cigarettes costs one-third of the price of manufactured ones.

People FOX 25 spoke to stand on both sides of the issue.

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EDITORIAL: The price of a smoke 

It is a moot point if raising the price of tobacco products will stop smokers from risking their health.

For addicts the past rise in the price has never been a deterrent even though one would accept that logic calls for a rethink seeing as how a person is paying that much more to damage his or her health. The 200 per cent heft in the tax across the GCC that has now on the verge of being implemented may well have the required impact and even if it does sober up a 10th of the smoking population to stubbing out their habit it will have been worth it.

Despite the desire to stop thousands succumb to the pleasure of the cigarette and then feel guilty about it. A tangible price hike like this goes well beyond the cosmetic and can hit the average budget thereby calling for a change in lifestyle. . . .

In the end it is the individual who has to decide whether the expense is worth the flirtation with danger. By the token it is also necessary to clarify the myths that surround smoking. All smoking is bad. No smoking device is safer than the other. There is no such thing as not inhaling.

And only one in a thousand smokers can control their intake at two or three sticks a day. For the rest giving up is a temporary thing beaten only by the tiny span of cutting down.

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Measure seeks to curb “roll your own” cigarette movement  

On Tuesday, the House Committee on Business & Financial Services officially approved legislation that would formally declare retail shops as manufacturers of cigarettes and also make them pay the same taxes as are levied on pre-packed cigarettes. The measure now heads to the House Ways & Means Committee. A similar measure is being considered in the Senate.

Brown, who traveled to Olympia to testify against the measure, says that by declaring his little store a cigarette manufacturer he would have to undergo the same U.S. Food & Drug Administration standards as the large tobacco companies.

“I don’t mind charging more in taxes but the manufacture aspect, that’s going to put us out of business,” Brown said.

And on Thursday, despite never receiving a public hearing, the Senate Committee on Labor, Commerce & Consumer Protection referred legislation that would out-right ban the use of the large “roll your own” cigarette machines to the Senate Ways & Means Committee.

Brown said he’s just amazed at the open hostility he’s seeing to destroy his business. . . .

“I’m not convinced that we need this bill,” said Blake, D-Aberdeen. “I think the business owners have made the case that they’re just selling tobacco and the tubes and letting customers combine them. And I’m not convinced that any change is needed. But, I have to say, there is bi-partisan support to push this through this session.”

Rep. Steve Kirby, who chairs the House Business Committee, is the prime sponsor of the legislation.

“Many of you will recall a couple of years back when we put that last dollar a pack on cigarettes, I stood on floor of the House opposed to that,” said Kirby, D-Tacoma. “I warned that people would find a way not to pay it. Here we are. Here we are. And we’ve got a problem now and we’ve got to weigh the revenue we’re losing by raising taxes against this entrepeneur spirit that many of us respect.”

TK Bentler, with the Washington Association of Neighborhood Stores, testified that the state is losing $26.2 million in revenue a year by allowing the roll-your-own cigarette stores to remain open and not pay the same taxes.

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FISCHER: Guest Viewpoint: Smoking is a burden on health care  

I would like to address online comments made in response to the Dec. 24 letter to the editor titled "Tobacco prevention funds pay off in time."

A common misconception is that smoking pays for "kiddy health care." "Kiddy health care" is what some people call the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) . . .

In contrast to the $2.2 billion that the state received from tobacco in 2010, that same year $8.2 billion was spent in New York to cover health care costs directly caused by smoking, with $5.4 billion coming from the Medicaid program. If smoking ceased and we no longer used Medicaid money to treat smoking-related diseases, New York would have $3.2 billion more to fund "kiddy health care," not the other way around.

The current budget of the New York State Tobacco Control Program is $41.4 million. This represents less than half of what the program received four years ago. Although New York has raised $10.5 billion in tobacco revenue over the past six years, less than 4 percent has been spent on tobacco control programs. . . .

The key message is that tobacco use not only takes a terrible toll on the health of our family and friends, it also costs taxpayers a large amount of money. Each household in New York has a tax burden of $884 per year in state and federal taxes from smoking-caused government expenditures — a fact too often forgotten when people think only of the revenue that tobacco provides.

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• Rising tobacco prices cause stir in West Bank  

Mustafa Jum'a, who runs a coffee shop in Ramallah in the West Bank, began to worry about his business as the prices for hookah smoke rise due to an extra tariff imposed on tobacco.

Israeli authorities suddenly raised import tariffs on tobacco, a move the Palestinians have to follow because of the Paris Economic Protocol signed with Israel in 1994, which states the two must have bond import tariffs in the light with the unified customs framework.

The rise has caused a reduction of customers, said Jum'a, adding most of his customers are public employees that used to come to the coffee shop twice or three times a day. "(They) now come here only once, if not every other day," he said.

The hookah price in Jum'a's coffee shop has risen from seven shekels (around 1.8 U.S. dollars) to 12 shekels (3.4 dollars). He made money when hookah smokers order tea, coffee or other drink, so now he makes less profit due to the reduction of customers.

Head of the tobacco customs department in the Ministry of Finance Bandi Dahdah said the new customs tariff requires the payment of 279 shekels (73 dollars) per kilogram, compared with the previous 50 shekels (13 dollars). Since the best tobaccos are imported from Egypt and Bahrain, almost all hookah smokers are affected by the new regulation.

Local tobaccos, mainly produced in the north of the West Bank, are unsuccessful in competing with these Arab blends.

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Proposition 29 Supporters Deliver Message To Big Tobacco  

Supporters of a California measure to raise the tax on a pack of cigarettes brought their campaign to San Diego. The group faces an uphill battle to get Proposition 29 approved in June. Smoking rates in California are at the lowest level in 20 years.

Nearly 12 percent of Californians said they smoked in 2010, according to a state survey. That's down significantly from the early 1980s when the rate among adults was closer to 26 percent. Even teenage smoking has fallen.

State officials attribute the decline to decades of anti-smoking campaigns. California voters approved paying for the ads with a tobacco tax in 1988. What followed were bans on smoking in bars, restaurants and most offices.

Don Maguire, 68, was a two-pack a day smoker for 35 years. He's now an American Heart Association volunteer and supporter of Proposition 29.

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Smoke Free Horry to host founder Of Smokefree America  

Representatives from Smoke Free Horry today announced Patrick Reynolds, grandson of tobacco company magnate R.J. Reynolds and founder of The Foundation for a Smokefree America, will speak at Horry-Georgetown Technical College in Conway on January 18.

A grandson of cigarette company founder R.J. Reynolds, Patrick first spoke out publicly at a Congressional hearing in favor of a ban on all tobacco advertising (1986). Former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop said in 2003, "Patrick Reynolds is one of the nation's most influential advocates of a smoke-free America. His testimony is invaluable to our society." Reynolds' family is from Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

"We are excited to welcome Mr. Reynolds to the Myrtle Beach area and wencourage everyone to come out and hear the important messages he has to share about the dangers of tobacco use," said Larry White, program director of Smoke Free Horry.

The event, which will take place at 6 p.m. in the Burroughs and Chapin Auditorium at HGTC's Conway Campus, building 110, is free and open to the public.

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LETTER: REYNOLDS: Smoking ban needs more pragmatism 

North Myrtle Beach City Council members thinking of voting against the city’s proposed ordinance based on their ideology that we need less government regulation, and should protect business owners above all, should take a closer look.

Ironically, the smoking ban in North Myrtle Beach will be good for business, not bad for it. Numerous studies of municipalities that passed 100 percent smoking bans showed no decline in sales, measured by sales tax revenue paid before and after the bans. In many cases, revenues increased. . . .

We need case-by-case, pragmatic solutions to today’s highly complex problems – a more carefully considered approach to lawmaking. In sum, leaders who adhere to a rigid ideology will prove dangerous to our communities, our economy and our nation.

The proposed smoking ban for North Myrtle Beach is a common sense law that will both protect non-smokers and also be good for the local economy and business. It’s an idea whose time has come – a regulation, and a good one.

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