Senate Finance Committee to Increase Tobacco Tax
TweetI got this e-mail from The Party Source.
Quote:
Your Active Involvement is Needed!
Senate Finance Committee members on Tuesday announced that they have reached a tentative agreement on legislation that would reauthorize and expand SCHIP, although the deal “is smaller than Democrats had hoped and reliant on a politically difficult” 61-cent-per-pack federal cigarette tax increase, CQ Today reports. The program is set to expire on Sept. 30.
Under the bipartisan agreement, the tobacco tax increase would provide $35 billion over five years to expand SCHIP, according to committee members Gordon Smith (R-Ore.), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and John Kerry (D-Mass.) (Wayne, CQ Today, 7/10). Democrats originally proposed providing an additional $50 billion over five years for the program (Freking, AP/Baltimore Sun, 7/11).
How does this affect Cigar smokers?
Rate increases.
The rates under the proposal are as follows:
- Small cigarettes are taxed at the rate of $50.00 per thousand ($1.00 per pack);
- Large cigarettes are taxed at the rate of $104.9999 per thousand;
- Small cigars are taxed at the rate of $50.00 per thousand (the same rate applied to small cigarettes);
- Large cigars are taxed at the rate equal to 53.13 percent of the manufacturer’s or importer’s sales price but not more than $10.00 per cigar;
A $5 Cigar would be $7.50
A $10 Cigar would be $15.00
Now is the time to let our Senators and Congressman hear our voices. Please take the time to contact your representatives and let them know how you feel.
Thanks in advance for your attention and action.
Update:
E mail your senators
If you don’t know what to say this should help you:
Dear Senator __________
As my honorable and elected Senator I wish to bring your attention to Senate Concurrent Resolution 21 – specifically the Amendment 510 sponsored by Gordon Smith of Oregon, Ted Kennedy of Mass , John Kerry of MA and Olympia Snow. This Amendment currently promises to raise taxes on cigars to the point where honest retailers will likely be driven out of business by the inventory tax this amendment will implement. Also, taxes to the level of $10 per cigar are not just poorly considered, they are out and out punitive action against those who purchase cigars.
As you count on my vote, I hope I can count on your vote AGAINST this amendment.
Please feel free to contact me if you wish to discuss this at any time.
Yours
________________
Citizen
There are 8 Comments to "Senate Finance Committee to Increase Tobacco Tax"
I just wrote to both Senators from my home state of Illinois. Please take the time an email your Senators before it is too late. I relaize they want our money, but they need to find another source. I realize spending $5 on a cigar is politically incorrect. I promise to help feed the homeless. Until then, take the time and let your smokey voices be heard.
Stop the Madness!
As a follow up to my last comments, I just received a response for the Presidential Candidate, Barack Obama. His response was scary. The tax will happen. You must act now and call your Senators to counter Senator Obama’s vision of the future.
Checkout my site for his response. It will blow you away.
Also, thank you for putting together the template, which I used to write my Senators. It was extremely helpful. I also used your link to get their email addresses. Thank You!
Ha, I got the link and template from Hoot in the forum. He got it someplace else.
Going over to your site now. This is crazy and EVERYONE needs to take 5 minutes to do this. I’m going to hit some more blogs hopefully tonight to pass the word but I’m sure most know about it by now. I have got emails about this from Thompson, CI, Party Source (local B&M) and I believe one other place.
I just got a reply from the other Senator from Illinois. His remarks are more scary than Obama’s. The ciagr tax will happen unless you call your Senator’s today!
To view Sen. Durbin’s comments, go to http://cigarmonkey.com/
WTF? So why is he supporting a huge tax increase on cigars? I don’t know any teens that smoke “large cigars”. What these people don’t understand is there is a HUGE difference between cigars and cigarettes! This does not look good at all!
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