Ohio Attempting to raise Tobacco Taxes

**Cigar Jack** · 05-13-2005, 09:48 PM

Ohio Tobacco Taxes Going Up

I went into my local Tinder Box and the lovely young woman behind the counter handed me a petition as I paid for my cigars. This petition is for Ohio House Bill 66, which is currently sitting on the desk of the Ohio Senate Finance and Financial Institutions Committee. They want to raise the tobacco tax from 17% to 30%. This will drive many people to purchase online from other states and even overseas, or cross over into Kentucky, which only taxes cigars by 3%. Here is the information from HB 66 that pertains to tobacco taxes:

Sec. 5743.51. (A) To provide revenue for the general revenue fund of the state, an excise tax on tobacco products is hereby levied at the rate of seventeenthirty per cent of the wholesale price of the tobacco product received by a distributor or sold by a manufacturer to a retail dealer located in this state. Each distributor who brings tobacco products, or causes tobacco products to be brought, into this state for distribution within this state, or any out-of-state distributor who sells tobacco products to wholesale or retail dealers located in this state for resale by those wholesale or retail dealers is liable for the tax imposed by this section. Only one sale of the same article shall be used in computing the amount of the tax due.

Entire text of HB 66 can be found here. (PDF format)

This is the Main Operating Budget for 2006-2007 so it has an extremely good chance of passing. So please call, fax, write or email their Senators and ask them to amend this bill and not raise taxes on tobacco products. This drastic of a rise in tobacco taxes will harm cigar retailers in Ohio especially the Cincinnati area which already has to compete with the lower taxes in Kentucky.

The Senate Finance Committee will be hearing this bill the week of May 16, 2005. You can find you Senators by entering your zip code here. I will keep everyone posted regarding this bill as news changes.

Anyone in Ohio or running a tobacco related website please feel free to link or copy this text but I ask that you do link back to my site.

SFG75 · 05-14-2005, 08:53 AM

Sorry to hear the news Jack.

The "sin taxes" are always popular since a lot of people who they hit don't vote in large numbers. Not only that, but they are a distinct minority and hey!, why not tax that which "kills"? Tobacco and liquor are popular whenever politicians want more slop in the trough for their pet projects.

What gets me are the people who right letters in favor of such things out of some common desire for the "people's health" Call it-Mao meets the surgeon general philosophy.