Bill Would Add Cigarette Tax of $2.00 in California

The California State Senate on Thursday gone by an ivoice to regulate e cigarettes as tobacco, transmitting to the determine to the Assembly whereby a related cost perished just recently. The hike supporters said would help to curb the number of smoking deaths, but critics said it would place more needless burden on small business and the consumer.

The current state tax on a pack of 20 cigarettes is 87 cents, plus a $1.01 federal tax (California Healthline, 5/5).

That is as a result of throughout this month’s particular legislative session, lawmakers started laying the groundwork to move a brand new tax on well being care plans that might fund well being look after the poor, in addition to a package deal of anti-smoking payments that goal to decrease the state’s well being care prices by decreasing the variety of Californians who use tobacco merchandise. “With that in mind, it makes no sense that 32 other states have a higher tax rate than California”. He signed legislation earlier this year raising Nevada’s tobacco tax by $1 to $1.80 per pack.

A Field Poll released Wednesday found that about two-thirds of California registered voters surveyed favored a $2-per-pack tax hike.

The bill says 40,000 Californians die from tobacco-related illness each year.

Opponents of the measure argue the state does not need another increase in taxes on distributors of tobacco as it is still recovering from the deep recession.

Smokers in California would see a hefty tax increase on their cigarettes under a bill reintroduced today in the Legislature.

If the Legislature fails to enact the tax, he said, the poll results showing 67 percent support for the measure may not mean much if the issue goes to the ballot and voters are bombarded by negative advertising paid for by Big Tobacco. Tobacco companies spent heavily to defeat two other tax-increase proposals in the last decade and this summer successfully killed several pieces of legislation seeking to increase tobacco regulations. SB X2-5 fixes this loophole and aligns state law with proposed federal regulations that define e-cigarettes as tobacco products. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco.

E-cigarettes generally contain nicotine, drawn into the lungs after it is heated in a flavored liquid.

Sen. Joel Anderson, R-Alpine, spoke against two of the measures, including one by Sen.

S.B.X2 9 – Would allow for local governments to impose additional taxes on tobacco products.

“These people are adults who are willing to put their life on the line for their country and they ought to be able to go buy a pack of cigarettes if they want to”, said Pete Conaty, a lobbyist for the American Legion.

Normally, these bills would all pass through the Senate Governmental Organization Committee before heading to a floor vote. “This slow approach makes no sense to me”.