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The Hector City Council decided against adopting a smoke-free ordinance for an area of its park at Thursday’s regularly scheduled meeting.
Mayor Martha Owens said several citizens expressed opposition following the council’s May meeting, where representatives from Community Service Inc. made a presentation detailing the benefits of the ordinance.
“We are going to wait a little bit further in time before we adopt it – probably the end of summer,” Owens said. “We’ll wait and give it some more discussion.”
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U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln says legislation that passed the Senate today will restrict tobacco companies from targeting children.
Lincoln and Sen. Mark Pryor, both D-Ark., voted with the majority as the Senate passed 79-17 the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.
LINCOLN PRESS RELEASE; Washington – U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln said the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, passed by the Senate today by a vote of 79 to17, will implement much-needed marketing restrictions on tobacco companies that target children.
A man caught breaking into the Miller County Jail last summer will soon leave his cell there for one in an Arkansas prison. Bobby Finley, 20, was accused of planning to sell drugs and tobacco inside the jail. Finley pleaded guilty Thursday to five felony counts and was sentenced to a total of 19 years in prison. But the sentences are to run consecutively and top out at five years. . . .
"In 19 years of prosecuting you always encounter cases that make you believe you've seen it all - until you see a case of this nature," Deputy Prosecutor Carlton Jones said.
Senator Mark Pryor spoke in support Wednesday of a bill to give the government some control over the tobacco industry.
The 84-11 Senate vote Tuesday to consider the bill came a month after the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a similar measure giving the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate cigarettes and other tobacco products.
"I think it will pass the Senate easily," Pryor said.
Everyone knows smoking is bad for you. But many do not realize the worldwide implications that tobacco has on health care and human rights, said Dr. Carolyn Dresler, the director for the Arkansas Department of Health Tobacco Prevention and Cessation.
"The tobacco epidemic is a global epidemic of which Georgia or the U.S. is just a piece of the puzzle," Dresler said. "For the most part what we treat are preventable diseases."
Dresler spoke to a group of medical professionals and representatives from community groups about the importance of tobacco cessation Tuesday at the Chattahoochee Country Club.
Dresler presented the group with some alarming facts -- for example, that smoking causes more deaths than AIDS, car crashes and alcohol and that 1.5 times more women die from lung cancer than from breast cancer.
One of the most-debated issues of Arkansas' recently completed legislative session was also one with the closest margin of victory.
The vote on Act 180 of 2009, the measure that increased the tax Arkansans pay on tobacco products passed 75-25 in the Arkansas House of Representatives and 28-7 in the 35-member Senate. Each vote met the three-fourths majority vote needed to approve a tax increase.
Four area House members -- Rep. Frank Glidewell, R-Fort Smith, Rep. Stephanie Malone, R-Fort Smith, Rep. Terry Rice, R-Waldron, and Rep. Mark Martin, R-Prairie Grove -- voted in opposition to the measure.
Three of those, contacted Thursday, said they had no objection to the establishment of the statewide trauma system supporters of the tax said the increase will fund.
Each questioned the soundness of the funding source.
Youngsters run the risk of being considered uncool when trying to convince their peers it's a bad idea to smoke or chew tobacco, but two University of Arkansas freshmen shrugged that off.
In their earlier teen years, Lizette Castillo of Fordyce and Shawn Burns of Texarkana became volunteer anti-tobacco advocates.
Both are 19-year-old minority-group members who grew up in different parts of south Arkansas. Coincidentally, both trained, through separate programs, on the best methods to sway other youth.
The two reflected on their paths Thursday, in-between peer advocacy sessions they taught for seventh- and eighthgraders at The Jones Center for Families in Springdale.
"I don't like to follow the crowd," said the Mexican-born Castillo, who since third grade has spoken English with a Southern twang just like most any other Arkansas-raised girl.
"I was the only Hispanic, for one thing," said Castillo, who graduated as valedictorian of her class from Fordyce High School.
She doesn't think she could have scored the academic accomplishment if she'd followed the popular, partying crowd that favored smoking and drinking, she said.
Whether or not they like it, both students admit that the policy has forced them to cut back -- even if just a little -- on their smoking habits.
While attempts to ban smoking in public spaces around the St. Louis area have been met with considerable resistance, a number of colleges have begun to quietly adopt tobacco-free policies on their campuses -- outdoor spaces and all. St. Charles Community College has had its policy on the books since January 2007.
Earlier this week, Washington University announced that it would go smoke- and tobacco-free by July 2010. St. Louis Community College's Wildwood campus has banned smoking since it opened in 2007. The college's Meramec campus will follow suit this fall. And officials at the University of Missouri-Columbia say it will do the same in 2014.
Nationwide, more than 130 college campuses have gone completely tobacco-free. More people have begun to take notice of the movement since last summer, when the University of Arkansas -- the first major flagship university to do so -- banned tobacco use on its campus.
Keep America Beautiful then awarded his group a grant for 12 cigarette urns, each costing about $150.
After a month, Pope did another "butt count," as he called it.
"It was down to 475," he said. "That sounds like an unacceptable number but it does show that cigarette urns will reduce litter by more than 50 percent."
At Pope's urging, Rep. Rick Green, R-Van Buren, filed House Bill 1172 during the recent legislative session to give a state income tax credit worth 20 percent of the purchase price of a cigarette urn. It would make the credit - a reduction of tax owed - available to businesses with fewer than 50 employees.
It was signed into law by Gov. Mike Beebe on Tuesday.
HB1172 passed by wide margins:
This means residents in towns that do not border other states can (legally) purchase cigarettes at lower tax rates by traveling to border towns. Mark Robyn, a Tax Foundation analyst, argues that this will still probably result in a net tax revenue gain for Arkansas -- since it will keep more cigarette purchases in-state -- and a net revenue loss for adjacent states.
As far as I can tell, no other state has tried to stop border-shopping for cigarettes in quite the same way. Mr. Robyn notes, however, that Arkansas has put in place similarly clever laws in response to border-state income tax and border-state gas tax differentials.
Source: The Tax Foundation
On February 12, the Arkansas General Assembly passed legislation to increase the state's excise rates on all tobacco products. As required by the bill, on March 1 the cigarette tax went from 59 cents to $1.15 per twenty-pack.1 But the same tax rate will not be enforced statewide. In a novel provision, the legislation, Act 180 of 2009, included a lower, variable rate for certain towns and stores located near the Arkansas border. . . .
Arkansas legislators are shrewdly acknowledging that cross-border shopping for low-tax cigarettes is a major problem for tax enforcement. To retain tax revenue and stop tax evasion, Arkansas has established a low-tax zone on its own side of the border. If this policy is successful in Arkansas other state legislatures may follow suit. To understand the rationale for this policy, the first of its kind among states, it is necessary to understand the problems that sometimes accompany cigarette taxation. . . .
It is important to note that this policy effectively shrinks the "tax border" of Arkansas. While there is still a minimum rate differential of three cents between Arkansas and any low-tax neighbor, this amount is small enough to provide almost no incentive for Arkansas residents to buy in other states. A significant tax differential does still exist however. The differential is now between different jurisdictions within the borders of Arkansas rather than between Arkansas and other states. . . .
Conclusion
Arkansas's border zone tax policy is a first in the world of cigarette excise taxation. This choice of policy is an acknowledgement of what many policy experts have been pointing out for a long time, that cigarette excise taxes are very susceptible to evasion through border shopping and other means, and that as tax differentials increase, these illegal activities become an increasing problem. Arkansas's policy may be successful enough that other states will consider similar policies in the future. While the policy will likely reduce border shopping and increase revenue to some degree, there are pros and cons that need to be weighed when states are considering whether to implement such a policy. The Arkansas experience will be instructive.
A 62-cent a pack increase on cigarette taxes has some University of Arkansas students struggling to keep up with their addiction. . . .
"It's just too much. I can't pay for it because I don't have a job," sophomore Mallory Scheurer said. "Right now, I'm just bumming, and it's bad."
Borrowing cigarettes from other students is an increasing phenomenon on campus, freshman Tory Cottingham said.
Cottingham spends about $40 a month on cigarettes, smoking about a pack a week. Though he hasn't had trouble buying cigarettes, he has had to make compromises.
"I've had to move down to cheaper, grosser cigarettes,"
And though some smokers say they are cutting down on cigarettes, many have taken a stand: They won't quit.
On a Friday afternoon, Ashley Biggs worked the counter at Tobacco World in downtown Harrison. There may have been a stream of customers coming in, but she was clear about the effect the tax increase has had on sales.
"They've dropped, extremely," she said.
Customers had some mixed feelings about how the tax has affected their lives.
One customer asked not to be named because she works with children and fears repercussions from parents if she were identified as a smoker, but she did have an opinion.
Arkansas has raised the tax on cigarettes in their state by 56 cents per pack, making the total tax now $1.15 per pack. In fact, 44 states have raised cigarette taxes since Jan. 1, 2002. We think that's a great idea! . . .
Studies show that the new tax in Arkansas will reduce youth smoking by 7 percent and overall cigarette consumption by about 4 percent. This will produce $357.9 million in long-term health care savings ... and raise about $72 million a year in new state revenue.
Perhaps one of the best things these taxes will do is to help convince addictive persons that yes, they can live without punishing themselves and others in their families. And yes, there is far more to life than being addicted to smoking, drinking and wasting your money on games of chance, where you know things are slanted against you to start with. I'll wager that if you asked those who truly love you, "What one thing would you change about me, if you could?" ... it would include one of these mentioned habits.
With the new state cigarette tax in effect in Arkansas -- some people are finding cheaper smokes in Missouri. But before you head to the Show-Me-State, make sure you’re aware of an Arkansas law.
In Arkansas, the excise rate is 59 cents. In Missouri -- its mere change at 17 cents. But buying more than 11 packs of cigarettes in Missouri -- and bringing them back into Arkansas -- is a misdemeanor.
And if you bring more than nine cartons across the border -- it's a felony.
Some smokers believe with the economy in the shape it’s in -- the law doesn't make much sense. . . .
Arkansas state police -- and the Tobacco Control Department -- say they've made no individual arrests related to this law in 2009.
But three retail stores in our state have been hit with the felony charge.
Just a few weeks ago -- a state legislator tried to pass a bill which would make bringing in more than 2 out of state cartons a felony -- but that bill failed.