 Plus: Irish fury over the politics of second-hand smoke
Los Angeles, April 7 – Every once in a while, you get a look into the soul of a politician.
More than likely, you’ll find a bank deposit slip.
But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Take the state of Washington and its debate over a bill to cut taxes on “other tobacco products,” which means tobacco products other than cigarettes.
It’s all about money.
The Tacoma News-Tribune reported that both the Washington House and Senate are considering bills which would reduce taxes on cigars, pipe tobacco and other non-cigarette products back to the 75% of wholesale price level it had been prior to voter-passed Initiative 773, which raised such taxes to 129.42% of the wholesale price three years ago.
Moreover, state tax on any individual cigar would be limited to 50 cents.
The issue is that Washington, like most states, is desperate for revenues of any and all kinds. And although anti-tobacco groups are unhappy about any support for tobacco products, it is also true that Washington state tobacco tax revenues from “other tobacco products” are going down as purchases continue, but out of the reach of state taxation.
Jeff Packer, owner of two Tinder Box shops, testified last Friday that “It’s made our retail prices so high that we’ve lost most of our sales of cigars and pipe tobacco. The customers end up purchasing these products online, through mail-order companies or they go to Indian reservations where the [state] tax doesn’t apply.”
It was pointed out in the Senate hearing that a box of cigars which costs $130 online would cost $191 in neighboring Oregon, but $370 in Washington!
If the measures are adopted, a box of 25 cigars which retails for $100 would have an additional tax of only $12.50 added to it, making it accessible to state consumers. This will, in turn:
(1) raise revenues which have been flowing out of state, to the tune of perhaps $8 million;
(2) increase retail store sales, which supports small business and
(3) helps to control “outlaw” sales of tobacco to minors and minimize smuggling.
At the same time, Washington lawmakers are looking at raising cigarette taxes by up to $8 a carton (200 cigarettes), which would bring in $170 million over two years.
These actions – on House bill 2303 and Senate bill 6097 – actually make some sense. Users of cigars and pipes, which make up most of the “other tobacco products” category, are hobbyists, not addicts as can be the case with cigarettes. Cigar and pipe smokers will continue to find ways to enjoy themselves and if local prices are too high, they will buy from places which are not as pricey.
Moreover, the reality is that cigarettes are – for the most part – the tobacco industry. For 2004, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated that 390 billion cigarettes were consumed in the U.S. compared to 4 billion cigars of all types! That’s 97.5 to 1!
The number is even more staggering when you consider that against handmade, premium cigars (300 million), annual U.S. cigarette consumption is 1,300:1!
So if you want to add tax revenue, hitting cigarettes harder and going easier on cigars and smoking tobacco is the wave of the future. If the Washington legislation passes, it may be a model for other states which recognize their need for revenue as well as the difference between cigarettes and all other forms of tobacco.
Smoking outside may be bad for your health:
That’s the headline to a cracker of an April 1 letter by John Mallon to the Irish Examiner which bears reprinting:
“After a year of clean air in our workplaces, we could have reasonably expected the Office of Tobacco Control to report a huge fall-off in hospital admissions and huge drops in cancer and coronary heart failure rates.
“We were, after all, led to believe that environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) was (maybe) the biggest killer.
“But instead they state that carbon monoxide (CO) levels have fallen by 45% in pubs. Statistics like these are designed to impress but on closer examination, they are meaningless. Carbon monoxide is present in low levels in the air everywhere. Open flames are the most common source of carbon monoxide and motor vehicles are the most common cause of carbon monoxide poisoning.
“Cigarette smoke contains only tiny amounts and it is the smoker, not those around him, who is affected. A drop in CO emissions, while welcome, is probably caused by factors other than cigarettes.
“The reality is that nothing has changed on the health level. Hospital waiting lists grow longer, record number of patients are being treated (or not) on trollies and the health service is a shambles.
“While CO levels have fallen in some pubs, levels are rising in the streets outside due to increased exhaust fumes from more cars on the road. In this context, forcing smokers out could actually be quite dangerous.”
Amen, brother.
~ Rich Perelman
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