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HAMMOND: Albany gasbags are full of it 

State lawmakers are spouting so much hot air about the state's budget crisis these days, it's a wonder the Capitol hasn't lifted off the ground like the old man's house in the movie "Up." . . .

They've got nothing.

Ditto for Sen. Carl Kruger of Brooklyn, who made a big show yesterday of demanding that Paterson immediately start enforcing cigarette tax laws on Indian reservations.

It's true that Albany has tolerated rampant tax evasion that hurts law-abiding merchants and costs state and local government big bucks.

But for Kruger to claim that enforcement could reap $1.6 billion a year is reckless. "If people smoked that much there would be a big black cloud over the state blocking out the sun," one budget official quipped.

Throwing around numbers like that suggests that Kruger is exploiting the issue as an excuse not to grapple with the politically dicey work of finding cuts.

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GMA allies buck SICPA plan  

President Arroyo’s allies at the House yesterday opposed the “tamper proof” strip stamps on every pack of cigarette and bottle of liquor proposed by Switzerland-based SICPA Product Security SA, saying it amounts to the imposition of additional taxes.

The congressmen, during a briefing of the House committee on ways and means conducted by SICPA officials, also expressed doubts over the project’s viability considering that it would cost the government close to P18 billion.

Rep. Mauricio Domogan (Lakas-Kampi CMD, Baguio) said BIR would violate the Constitution if it signs the SICPA contract.

“Whether you like it or not, this is a form of taxation. Adding cost to be passed on to consumers, to me, is just another form of taxation which I don’t think can be done by the mere signing of a contract,” he said.

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Solons wary of plan to hike cigarette taxes 

A plan that would effectively hike cigarette prices yet possibly fail to boost government revenues was questioned by members of the House of Representatives on Tuesday.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue plans to add revenue stamps to cigarette packs to improve inventory monitoring and tracking of the tobacco products from factories to retail outlets in order to minimize tax leakages and boost revenues by P13 billion.

The government has endorsed the BIR's plan which would use revenue stamps provided by Swiss-based SICPA Product Security Inc.

During a hearing of the House ways and means committee, former BIR commissioner and incumbent Camarines Sur Rep. Liwayway Vinzons-Chato said that based on research conducted by her staff, the revenue stamps being pushed by SICPA showed "no clear indication as to an increase in tax collection and [minimizing] so-called leakages.''

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Solons warn BIR vs tax stamps on sin products 

LEGISLATORS on Tuesday warned the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) against signing the P18-billion revenue-stamp contract with a leading global provider of security ink and solutions for the authentication of bank notes, value documents and products, saying the proposal could trigger the imposition of additional taxes on the public.

At the hearing of the House ways and means committee on Tuesday, legislators also questioned the contract cost that increased from P13 billion to P18 billion in a matter of three years since the proposal was first submitted to the BIR.

Sicpa Products Security SA Director Hans Schwab blamed inflation for the P5 billion cost adjustment from 2006 to 2009.

Liberal Party Rep. Liwayway Vinzons-Chato of Camarines Sur aired strong misgivings about Sicpa’s claim that the revenue-stamp technology they are offering would address “illicit” cigarette trade that has cost the government several billions of pesos in unrealized revenues.

Chato recalled that during her term as internal-revenue commissioner, she sent a team of experts to the United States to study the fuson stamp system as a means of determining taxes on cigarette products.

“The group did not recommend the attachment of fuson on stamps because there was no clear indication as to increase in collection in taxes and so-called leakages,” Chato said.

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Perata, health groups launch tobacco tax initiative  

Former state Senate President Pro Tem and 2010 Oakland mayoral candidate Don Perata joined cancer research and health advocates Monday to launch a ballot measure that would hike cigarette taxes by a dollar a pack.

"This is the right measure for the right time," Corey Goodman, a UC San Francisco professor and former biotech entrepreneur, said at a news conference in the Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute, adding the half-billion dollars per year this measure could raise would help move scientific breakthroughs "from the bench to the bedside" to save lives.

Perata said he conceived of the measure while still in the state Senate, well before being treated for prostate cancer earlier this year. He called it "probably the most exhilarating and hopefully the most rewarding thing I will have done in my years in politics."

Money raised would go into a trust fund, with 60 cents of every dollar to fund research on causes, prevention and treatment of cancer and other smoking-related illnesses;

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AUDIO: Feature News Story | Health Advocates Push Ballot Measure To Raise Cigarette Tax For Cancer Research 

Anti-smoking groups are working to get a measure on next year's ballot that would raise the state tax on cigarettes.

The money would help pay for cancer research in California.

Capital Public Radio's Steve Shadley reports...

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Illegal smokes fuelling crime, group says  

Some of the money earned from the sale of black market smokes is fuelling firearm and drug smuggling by organized crime, an expert says.

About $2 billion in tax revenue goes up in smoke as a result of the sale of illegal smokes, according to a report by the Canadian Tobacco Manufacturers Council. About 13 billion illegal cigarettes are sold in Canada each year.

"People think selling contraband cigarettes is a victimless crime and no one gets hurt. Yes, it deprives us of tax dollars, but it is money that is pumped back into organized crime," said Gary Grant, a former Toronto cop, who heads the National Coalition Against Contraband Tobacco.

"Organized criminals are lining their pockets with sales from illegal cigarettes to traffic their weapons and drugs," he added yesterday.

NCACT recently conducted a study, which found 30% of the cigarette butts collected around high schools were from illegal smokes.

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Tobacco Tax Has Good Chance of Passing 

Senator Frank Aguon Jr. has reported the tobacco tax bill or bill 150 out of committee.

This means the bill is ready to hit the session floor. The measure would double the tax on a pack of cigarettes and more than double the amount on chewing tobacco.

Vice-speaker BJ Cruz is referring to his tobacco tax bill or bill 150 which would double the amount of tobacco tax on cigarettes. This would raise the tax on cigarettes by a dollar.

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Mohawks would fight cigarette tax 

The St. Regis Mohawk Tribe is getting ready to show some muscle if the state goes through with its idea to collect taxes on tribally-sold cigarettes.

Gov. David A. Paterson has been floating the idea of collecting the taxes to help cover the state's massive budget deficit and recently asked the state attorney general to help assess the risk of violent demonstrations should the tax-collectors come knocking on American Indian reservation doors.

In a speech Tuesday at a state Senate public hearing in New York City, Chief James W. Ransom told the governor what kind of resistance may come his way.

"My response is that anytime someone attempts to infringe on the rights of Mohawks and the Haudenosaunee, we will defend ourselves," he said in the speech. "New York state should expect no less."

If the state moves to consult with the tribes and consider their rights, a "peaceful resolution of state concerns can be found," Mr. Ransom said.

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Kruger: Time to start collecting Indian cigarette taxes  

In what might be a sign that budget talks are really stalled and lawmakers are starting to — depending on who you talk to — flail about desperately or think outside the box, Senate Finance Chair Carl Kruger walked a letter to Gov. David Paterson's second-floor office demanding that he start collecting taxes on cigarettes sold on Native American lands.

Such a move, Kruger said, would generate $1.6 billion a year, with $135 million in December alone.

The Indian tax issue has been around for years despite lawmakers' passing legislation to collect the tax. So far, that effort has been stymied by the likelihood of endless litigation over the argument that the taxes don't apply to sovereign Indian lands, and the fear of violent protests by Native groups. Past actions have included the closure of the state Thruway; some of the largest Native American lands are along the Thruway in central and western regions.

Kruger compared that fear to the possibility that suburban homeowners could create an uprising and halt highway traffic in protest over their property taxes. "Everybody has to pay their fair share," Kruger said.� "We want taxes collected. It would be an instant cash flow infusion."

Not everyone agrees, most pointedly the Paterson Administration, which has typically fielded Indian tax calls more from Republicans than Democrats.

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Lawmakers close hearings on cigarette tax stamp issue  

The Bureau of Internal Revenue's plan to provide security stamps on cigarette packs faced another setback as lawmakers yesterday shelved discussions on the controversial tax stamp system on cigarette packaging proposed by Switzerland-based Sicpa Product Security SA (SICPA).

Members of the House committee on ways and means led by Rep. Exequiel Javier (Lone District, Antique) said the project would only mean additional costs to consumers.

As such, the panel approved the motion of Rep. Victor Ortega (1st District, La Union) to close the hearings. The committee also asked the Inter-Agency Investment Coordination Committee  (IICC) and the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), the ICC's secretariat to provide the panel with a report on their decisions allowing the BIR to pursue negotiations with Sicpa.

NEDA earlier gave the BIR the green light to pursue negotiations with SICPA after it reviewed the Swiss company's proposal. The BIR had submitted the proposal to NEDA for review.

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• Calif. group pushes for $1 tobacco tax increase for cancer research 

Smokers in California will have to dig much deeper into their pockets to buy a pack of cigarettes next year if a proposed ballot measure passes.

The Californians for a Cure plan is aimed at raising millions of dollars for cancer research, smoking prevention programs and to help bankroll anti-tobacco smuggling efforts. The measure is backed by, among others, cancer research and health advocates.

Their plan calls for a buck increase in the state's excise tax on tobacco, to $1.87 per pack. The money raised would flow into a trust fund. Sixty-cents of the dollar raised from a pack of smokes would to go to fund research on cancer and other smoking-related illnesses.

Under the plan, 20 cents would go to fund smoking cessation and tobacco use prevention programs, 15 cents would go to help fund research facilities, while three pennies would go to fund tobacco smuggling enforcement.

The plan calls for about two percent of the revenue to go for administrative costs.

How the money would be spent would be overseen by a nine-member oversight committee.

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• Africa heading for 'smoking epidemic' 

Since the smoking ban in Kenya, people can only smoke in special zones

At Jeevanjee gardens in Nairobi, smokers gather during their lunch hour to read, chat and light up.

It is one of the few zones in the Kenyan capital where people can smoke in public, since the ban on smoking in public came into effect in 2007.

As he takes a puff, one of the young men describes his habit.

"I've been smoking for 40 years but I hate it," he says. . . .

Dr Twalib Ngoma, president of the African Organisation for Research and Training in Cancer (AORTIC), says that Africa is on the brink of a smoking epidemic.

"Africa is in the area of the pre-epidemic and so we should prevent the epidemic," he told the BBC World Service.

"We should not wait until there is an epidemic and then work on it. We should prevent the epidemic."

Tobacco-related cancer was one of the key topics discussed at a recent international cancer conference in Tanzania.

One of the reports presented there warns that African nations are set to undergo the highest increase in the rate of tobacco use among developing countries. . . .

"For the first time in history, we have the tools in hand to prevent a pandemic," says Dr Otis W Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society.

"Smoke-free public places are one example of a low-cost and extremely effective intervention that must be implemented now to protect health."

As well as Kenya, Niger also recently introduced a smoking ban in public places. . . .

"If a consumer is addicted to tobacco, then it is possible to put prices up and they will go without lunch."

But Mr Spielman says that he expects that over time, increasing advertising restrictions and bigger health warnings will come into place in African countries.

But in the meantime, as long as there are smokers who will sacrifice lunch for a packet of cigarettes, there will always be consumers.

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For the first time in history, we have the tools in hand to prevent a pandemic.
Dr Otis W Brawley, chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society.

• Cigarette sales plunge since Florida's tax increase 

Cigarette sales have fallen sharply across Florida since a $1-a-pack tax increase took effect July 1, plunging nearly 50 percent in some counties.

Statewide, cigarette sales that regularly topped 100 million packs per month dropped to 73 million packs the month the tax became law. Since then, sales have inched back to around 78 million packs but remain well below prior levels.

To supporters, the sagging sales are evidence that the tax is meeting its public health objective: getting smokers to quit. Critics, however, say many people are simply buying their cigarettes elsewhere or switching to items that aren't subject to the higher tax, like small cigars.

The state charge on cigarettes is now $1.34, compared with the 34-cent tax that had been in place since 1990.

"It's working exactly the way it was designed to work. People are quitting," said

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Following Florida's tax hike, are smokers cutting back or shopping elsewhere?  

Cigarette sales have fallen sharply across Florida since Gov. Charlie Crist signed into law a $1-a-pack tax increase this summer, plunging nearly 50 percent in some counties.

Statewide, cigarette sales that regularly topped 100 million packs per month dropped to 73 million packs after the tax took effect July 1. Since then, sales have inched back up to about 78 million packs — still well below prior levels.

To supporters, the sagging sales are evidence that the tax is meeting its public-health objective: getting smokers to quit. Critics, however, say many people are simply buying their cigarettes elsewhere or switching to items that aren't subject to the higher tax, such as small cigars.

The state levy on cigarettes is now $1.34 per pack, compared with the 34-cent tax that had been in place since 1990.

"It's working exactly the way it was designed to work. People are quitting," said Rep. Jim Waldman, D-Coconut Creek, a cigarette-tax champion. "If I could, I'd raise it another dollar."

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