I sent the following e-mail letter to MD House Ways and Means Committee members today.
Sheila.Hixson@house.state.md.us,
Frank.Turner@house.state.md.us,
Kathy.Afzali@house.state.md.us,
Kumar.Barve@house.state.md.us,
Joseph.Boteler@house.state.md.us,
Talmadge.Branch@house.state.md.us,
Jon.Cardin@house.state.md.us,
don.dwyer@house.state.md.us,
Mark.Fisher@house.state.md.us,
Bill.Frick@house.state.md.us,
Ron.George@house.state.md.us,
Carolyn.Howard@house.state.md.us,
Jolene.Ivey@house.state.md.us,
Anne.Kaiser@house.state.md.us,
Eric.Luedtke@house.state.md.us,
Aruna.Miller@house.state.md.us,
LeRoy.Myers@house.state.md.us,
Andrew.Serafini@house.state.md.us,
Melvin.Stukes@house.state.md.us,
Michael.Summers@house.state.md.us,
Jay.Walker@house.state.md.us,
alonzo.washington@house.state.md.us
To: Maryland House Ways and Means Committee Members
From: Bill Godshall, Executive Director, Smokefree Pennsylvania
RE: HB 683
tobacco Taxes
To improve public health while preventing a huge increase in
tobacco smuggling and cross border sales from adjacent states, I urge you to amend the cigarette tax increase in HB 683 from $1/pack to $.50/pack and to reject any additional tax increase for Other
tobacco Products (which were just doubled last year).
MD’s $2/pack cigarette tax and annual MSA payments already adequately reimburse the State for its expenditures caused by cigarette smoking. While further increases in cigarette taxes will encourage some smokers to quit and will prevent more youth from smoking, raising the tax to $3/pack would sharply increase organized crime cigarette smuggling from Virginia and would sharply increase cross border sales from all adjacent states due to huge tax differences (i.e. VA $.30, WV $.55, PA $1.60, DE $1.60). Thus, I suggest increasing MD’s cigarette tax by no more than $.50/pack (i.e. to $2.50/pack).
Cigarette smoking causes >99% of all tobacco attributable morbidity, mortality and healthcare costs, while the use of Other Tobacco Products causes <1%. So there is no public health or fiscal justification for increasing MD’s tax rate for any Other Tobacco Products.
Consumption of moist snuff in the US has increased 54% during the past decade, with adult cigarette smokers accounting for the majority of new snuff users. Since moist snuff and other smokeless tobacco products are 99% less hazardous than cigarettes, smokers who switch to smokefree tobacco products reduce their morbidity and mortality risks nearly as much as by quitting all tobacco use.
But HB 683 would unfairly increase the smokeless tobacco tax from 30% to 95% (of wholesale price), which would encourage some smokeless tobacco users to switch back to far more hazardous cigarettes, and would discourage other smokers from switching to far less hazardous smokefree tobacco products.
HB 428 also would unfairly increase the cigar tax from 30% to 95% (of wholesale price) even though cigars are also significantly less hazardous than cigarettes (as most cigar smokers don’t inhale the smoke, and most don’t smoke cigars daily).
PA doesn’t tax smokeless tobacco or cigars, WV taxes OTP at 7% of wholesale price, VA taxes them at a similar rate, and DE taxes them at 15%. Most smokeless tobacco users and many cigar smokers in MD live within 15 miles of these adjacent states, and will simply travel out of state to buy the products if the MD legislature further increases OTP tax rates.
Finally, please note that youth consume <1% of tobacco products, and youth cigarette smoking has dropped sharply during the past 15 years. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that past month use of cigars, smokeless tobacco and pipe tobacco among youth 12-17 years ALL declined from 2007 to 2010.
Once again, I urge you increase MD’s cigarette tax by no more than $.50/pack and to reject any increase in the OTP tax.
Since I founded Smokefree Pennsylvania in 1990, we’ve successfully advocated policies to reduce indoor tobacco smoke pollution, reduce tobacco marketing to youth, increase cigarette tax rates, hold cigarette companies accountable in civil court, and in 2007 I convinced US Senator Mike Enzi to amend the Tobacco Control Act to require graphic warnings on all cigarette packs, which is now in federal litigation.
Please contact me anytime for additional information or assistance.
Sincerely,
William T. Godshall, MPH
Executive Director
Smokefree Pennsylvania
1926 Monongahela Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15218
412-351-5880
smokefree@compuserve.com
They're keeping us very busy with CTAs right now! 
