Pennsylvania Legislators Considering Excise Tax on Ecigs!

[sonicdsl]

As Pennsylvania legislators scramble to fill a budget deficit of over $1 billion, a tax on electronic cigarettes is being considered. Rumors are that the State may seek to impose a punitive tax of up to 60% of wholesale price on all e-cigarette products, possibly including devices. Legislators are also considering taxing low-risk smokeless tobacco products at the same amount.

Pennsylvania is supposed to have its budget passed by June 30th, but the situation is so difficult that negotiations may push on past that date. Legislators need to immediately begin hearing from vapers and users of reduced harm products so that we can stop this tax from becoming law.

CASAA has issued two new CQ Roll Call Campaigns for Pennsylvania to express consumer opposition to a sin tax on e-cigarettes.

Call to Action:
CASAA: Call to Action! Pennsylvania Legislators Are Considering an Excise Tax on E-Cigarettes

 

[baseballmom]

Done!!! Keep getting this around, we've got a lot of pa vapers to reach

 

[catlady60]

Done. We have to educate legislators on the vastly reduced risk of vaping.

 

[beebopnjazz]

Done! What did people expect (regarding tax revenue) when people quit or cut down on smoking? Their tax revenue is now short...... and the same people they've been sin-taxing to death over the years are to bear the brunt of the shortage.....again? Not like they used the tobacco settlement money for its intended purpose or anything......and yet, they want more - and people j.u.s.t. d.o.n.'t. s.e.e. i.t. Unbelievable!

 

[BooBoo888]

Done! Hopefully they reconsider

 

[DeeLeeKay]

Done! Had a nice long chat with my reps aide. He is totally for us and against the bill.

 

[Stosh]

legislators scramble to fill a budget deficit of over $1 billion, a tax on<fill in the blank>

This sounds so much like what has been going on in New Jersey...let's see, we need more money, who should we tax that won't be able to vote us out of office.

Bump it up and fight like heck!!

 

[TomCatt]

Letter submitted.

 

[Bill Godshall]

Smokefree Pennsylvnia e-mailed the following letter to all PA Senators, and to PA House leaders and key House Cmte chairs (e-mail addresses are below the letter), and is mailing the same letters to legislative leaders today.


Subject: If tobacco taxes are increased, please increase cigarette taxes, but reject OTP taxes

If the General Assembly increases tobacco taxes in the budget, Smokefree Pennsylvania urges you to increase cigarette taxes, but oppose taxing Other Tobacco Products (OTP) or e-cigarettes.

Cigarettes cause >99% of tobacco attributable morbidity, disability, mortality and healthcare costs; <1% are due to large cigars, pipe & smokeless tobacco combined. E-cigarettes have helped at least a million smokers quit smoking (as has smokeless tobacco, primarily by rural white males), and there’s no evidence e-cigarettes have caused any disease or hooked any nonsmoker.

For fiscal accountability, taxpayer fairness and public health, tobacco tax revenue should reimburse government costs to treat diseases, disabilities, fires, etc. caused by their use. But tax rates should not be punitively excessive, and should never discourage smokers from switching to far less hazardous smokefree alternatives.

Federal, state & local governments spend about $50 billion ($4/pack) annually treating cigarette diseases and disabilities, while cigarette smokers in PA pay $3.11/pack in excise taxes ($1.01 US, $1.60 PA, $.50 for MSA). Increasing PA’s cigarette tax by $.90/pack would make up this difference, reduce cigarette consumption by 11%, and generate about $390 million in new tax revenue. A $.40/pack tax increase would generate about $190 in new tax revenue.

Although PA doesn’t tax large cigars, pipe or smokeless tobacco, OTP consumers in PA already reimburse the negligible government costs due to use of those products via federal excise taxes, which Congress increased in 2009. While Smokefree Pennsylvania advocated taxing OTP since 1994 and supported Gov. Rendell’s modest OTP tax proposal in 2009, we now oppose taxing OTP because those consumers already pay their fair share.

As you may be aware, some anti-tobacco extremists have falsely claimed OTP and e-cigarettes are as hazardous as cigarettes, and are lobbying to classify, regulate and tax them like cigarettes.

Many states (mostly in the South) unfairly force nonsmokers to subsidize government costs caused by cigarette smoking (via low taxes), while many other states (mostly in the Northeast) unfairly force tobacco users to subsidize unrelated government spending (via excessive cigarette and/or OTP taxes). We urge you to support fair taxes.

On a related issue, PA needs to ban the sale of e-cigarettes and other new nicotine products to minors, and 39 other States have done so since 2009. Please support Senator Tim Solobay’s bill (SB 1055) to ban the sale of alternative nicotine products to minors.

Since 1990, Smokefree Pennsylvania has advocated policies to ban smoking in workplaces, stop tobacco marketing to youth, hold cigarette companies accountable in courts, increase cigarette taxes, help smokers quit smoking, and inform smokers that smokefree tobacco and nicotine products are far less hazardous alternatives to cigarettes.

Sincerely,

Bill Godshall
Executive Director
1926 Monongahela Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15218
412-351-5880
BillGodshall@verizon.net



PA House Leaders (GOP)
Samuel Smith ssmith@pahousegop.com
Mike Turzai mturzai@pahousegop.com
Stan Saylor ssaylor@pahousegop.com
Sandra Major smajor@pahousegop.com
Mike Vereb mvereb@pahousegop.com
William F Adolph, Jr. wadolph@pahousegop.com
Richard Stevenson rstevens@pahousegop.com
Dave Reed http://www.repdavereed.net/Contact.aspx

PA House Minority Leaders (Democrats)
Frank Dermody fdermody@pahouse.net
Michael Hanna mhanna@pahouse.net
Dan Frankel dfrankel@pahouse.net
Ronald Waters rwaters@pahouse.net
Joe Markosek jmarkosek@pahouse.net
Neal Goodman ngoodman@pahouse.net
Mike Sturla msturla@pahouse.net

PA Senate Leaders (GOP)
Joseph B Scarnati III jscarnati@pasen.gov
Dominic Pileggi dpileggi@pasen.gov
Patrick Browne pbrowne@pasen.gov
John Gordner jgordner@pasen.gov
Robert Robbins rrobbins@pasen.gov http://www.senatorrobbins.com/contact.htm
Jake Corman jcorman@pasen.gov Senator Joe Scarnati | Contact Me
Richard Alloway alloway@pasen.gov
Edwin Erickson eerickson@pasen.gov Senator Ted Erickson | Contact Me

PA Senate Minority Leaders (Democrats)
Jay Costa costa@pasenate.com
Anthony Williams williams@pasenate.com
Richard Kasunic kasunic@pasenate.com
Christine Tartaglione tartaglione@pasenate.com
Vincent Hughes hughes@pasenate.com
Jim Ferlo ferlo@pasenate.com
Wayne Fontana fontana@pasenate.com
Lisa Boscola boscola@pasenate.com

Other PA Senators (GOP)
David Argall dargall@pasen.gov
Lisa Baker lbaker@pasen.gov
Mike Brubaker mbrubaker@pasen.gov Senator Mike Brubaker | CONTACT ME
John Eichelberger jeichelberger@pasen.gov
Mike Folmer mfolmer@pasen.gov
Stewart Greenleaf sgreenleaf@pasen.gov
Scott Hutchinson shutchinson@pasen.gov
Charles McIlhinney cmcilhinney@pasen.gov
Bob Mensch bmensch@pasen.gov Senator Bob Mensch | CONTACT ME
John Rafferty jrafferty@pasen.gov
Lloyd Smucker lsmucker@pasen.gov
Robert Tomlinson rtomlinson@pasen.gov Senator Robert Tomlinson | Serving Pennsylvania's 6th Senatorial District
Patricia Vance pvance@pasen.gov
Elder Vogel evogel@pasen.gov
Randy Vulakovich rvulakovich@pahousegop.com
Scott Wagner swagner@pasen.gov Senator Scott Wagner | Contact
Kim Ward kward@pasen.gov Senator Kim Ward | Serving Pennsylvania's 39th District
Donald White dwhite@pasen.gov
Gene Yaw gyaw@pasen.gov

Other PA Senators (Democrats)
John Blake blake@pasenate.com
James Brewster brewster@pasenate.com
Andrew Dinniman Contact Us
Lawrence Farnese farnese@pasenate.com
Daylin Leach leach@pasenate.com
Judith Sch.... sch....@pasenate.com
Matt Smith msmith@pasenate.com
Tim Solobay solobay@pasenate.com
Mike Stack stack@pasenate.com
Rob Teplitz rteplitz@pasenate.com Contact
Leanna Washington washington@pasenate.com
Sean Wiley swiley@pasenate.com Contact
John Wozniak wozniak@pasenate.com
John Yudichak yudichak@pasenate.com

Other PA Reps (GOP)
Matthew Baker mbaker@pahousegop.com
Kerry Benninghoff kbenning@pahousegop.com
Paul Clymer pclymer@pahousegop.com
Gene DiGirolamo gdigirol@pahousegop.com
Robert Godshall rgodshal@pahousegop.com
John Maher jmaher@pahousegop.com
Daryl Metcalfe dmetcalf@pahousegop.com
Ron Miller rmiller@pahousegop.com
Chris Ross cross@pahousegop.com
Mario Scavello mscavell@pahousegop.com

Other PA House Reps (Democrat)
Paul Costa pcosta@pahouse.net

 

[Bill Godshall]

Please note that PA Constitution requires the state budget to done by June 30th (although it often takes until July 1, 2 or 3 for the General Assembly to negotiate and enact the budget). PA's budget is typically negotiated by the Governor and the R & D leaders of the House and Senate (with rank and file legislators typically having little input).

During the budget discussions (so far) Republican PA Governor Corbett and Republican controlled House leadership have staunchly opposed any new or increased taxes, while the Republican controlled Senate leaders have said they might be open to some new taxes (with several endorsing a Marcellus Shale drilling tax).

Meanwhile, minority Democrat Senate leaders have been pushing for a Marcellus Shale drilling tax, increased cigarette taxes and taxes on Other Tobacco Products (perhaps including e-cigs), as have minority Democrat House leaders.

At least one House Republican (Gene DiGirolamo) has called for a tax on OTP and e-cigs. Although it appears unlikely that e-cigs will be included in the new budget, anything could happen during the budget negotiations in the next several days or week in Harrisburg.

It would be helpful for PA vapers, vape shop owners and other interested folks to contact their State Rep and Senator during next several days (especially if they are legislative leaders) urging them to oppose taxing e-cigs and also urging them to support Sen. Solobay's bill (SB 1055) that would ban e-cig sales to minors.

Contact info for all PA legislators can be found at:
http://www.legis.state.pa.us/

PA residents can find their PA Senator and Rep at
http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/home/findyourlegislator/

 

[Bill Godshall]

Looks like Gov Corbett and PA House Republican leaders have secured enough votes from PA Senate Republicans to pass a budget that doesn't increase any taxes, which isn't pleasing the Senate Democrats who proposed taxing Marcellus Shale drilling, increasing cigarette taxes, and taxing OTP (and perhaps e-cigs).

Down to the wire: State lawmakers take up budget again as deadline looms - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Pa. lawmakers punch in late for final budget push: Monday Morning Coffee | PennLive.com
GOP's patchwork $29.1B budget speeds toward votes - LancasterOnline: Pennsylvania
http://watchdog.org/156946/budget-corbett-pennsylvania/

Interestingly, last night Corbett offered a pension reform deal to Philly Democrats to let Philly impose a $2/pack cigarette tax (but not a statewide cigarette tax). But the House and Senate Dems quickly rejected Corbett's offer.
http://blog.pennlive.com/capitol-notebook/2014/06/pension_reform_what_pension_re_1.html#incart_river

 

[Bill Godshall]

I just received the following letter from my PA Senator, Jay Costa, who is in the PA Democratic Senate leadership and who has proposed taxing OTP (perhaps including e-cigs). Instead of actually reading or comprehending my letter, it appears that Jay Costa and/or his staff simply (and falsely) presumed my letter opposed increasing cigarette taxes. Notice how Costa's canned letter (that he presumably sent to smokers who opposed increasing cigarette taxes) attempted to generate support for his proposal to tax OTP.

Dear Mr. Godshall:

Thank you for contacting me to relate your concerns about a proposal that would increase the cigarette tax imposed by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and impose a tax on other tobacco products. I appreciate your interest in this issue and I understand that you are concerned that our current tax structure unfairly targets cigarette smokers.

Pennsylvania’s cigarette taxes have increased in recent years, and I recognize that this has caused the price of cigarettes to rise. As with any proposed tax increase, we must weigh the impact of any proposal to increase the cigarette tax again. I assure you that I will do so. It is important to understand, however, that while cigarettes are taxed under current Pennsylvania law, other tobacco products, including cigars and loose tobacco, are not. I support proposals to expand the tobacco tax to include all tobacco products, and I believe that this would be a prudent and fair way to generate revenue for the Commonwealth. In fact, I believe that this expansion is overdue and I will continue to advocate for it.

Again, thank you for taking the time to contact me about this matter. Please feel free to contact me if I can assist you in any way.

Sincerely yours,
Senator Jay Costa, Jr.
43rd District
JC/jlg

 

[Kent C]

I just received the following letter from my PA Senator, Jay Costa, who is in the PA Democratic Senate leadership and who has proposed taxing OTP (perhaps including e-cigs). Instead of actually reading or comprehending my letter, it appears that Jay Costa and/or his staff simply (and falsely) presumed my letter opposed increasing cigarette taxes. Notice how Costa's canned letter (that he presumably sent to smokers who opposed increasing cigarette taxes) attempted to generate support for his proposal to tax OTP.

I assume you put your group's name, etc. in the letter. Wow.... if you can't get through to them, others have little chance... although I'm guessing they do count the 'for and against'... I know they used to.

 

[rothenbj]

Obviously Senator Costa is only concerned with continuing to unfairly tax anyone who uses any tobacco product, including e cigs, regardless of the health risk involved. I'd be willing to bet he'll be a lot less likely to go after sugary sodas and other products that are leading to the "obesity epidemic. Why? Because now you start losing votes.

 

[Bill Godshall]

Last night, after a bitterly partisan debate, the PA House passed the budget bill approved earlier in the evening by the Senate, which contains no new taxes.

But late last night, Gov. Corbett said he wouldn't sign the budget because it didn't resolve the state employee pension problem. Please note that on Sunday evening Corbett offered to support a proposal (apparently by Philly Mayor Michael Nutter) to let Philly impose a $2/pack tax on cigarettes as part of a pension deal. Although PA House and Senate Dems rejected Corbett's proposal and the budget bill didn't include the $2/pack cigarette tax for Philly, a deal was made between Dems and Republicans to include the Philly cigarette tax proposal (which hopefully won't apply to OTP or e-cigs) in a related bill that could be voted on today .

Corbett won't sign Pa. no-tax budget yet

Late Monday, Senate Democrats, including Hughes and Anthony Hardy Williams (D., Phila.), led an effort to amend a budget-related bill called the municipal code bill to include the $2-per-pack cigarette tax for Philadelphia. The final vote on it is expected Tuesday, but based on Monday night's 40-10 vote on the amendment, it appears safe.

Its fate in the House was less certain.

Corbett said that while he backs a cigarette tax to support Philadelphia schools, he still wants to see votes on a pension plan.

Gov. Tom Corbett remains undecided on whether he will veto budget - Morning Call

Corbett also called on Philadelphia Democrats to back the pension changes in exchange for a higher $2 city-only cigarette tax that would fund schools.

The Philadelphia plea backfired. Democrats flayed him in speeches, and on Monday the Pennsylvania Federation of Teachers, made up of teachers from Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, marched to his office chanting, "Fund our schools."

After the demonstration, Corbett's spokesman Jay Pagni said the governor was seeking a compromise with lawmakers to help schools by requesting pension changes in exchange for his approving the cigarette tax.

"He's trying to find common ground," Pagni said.

Corbett didn't get it Monday.

The Senate overwhelmingly approved the Philadelphia cigarette tax plan by amending it into a House bill that would reauthorize hotel taxes, which are used to fund tourism initiatives in all 67 counties. Because it was an amended bill, the Senate must vote on it again Tuesday and ship it to the House, where its future is unknown.

After the Senate vote, Corbett issued a statement that read in part: "While this action addresses the immediate needs of the Philadelphia School District, let me be clear: I continue to fight for meaningful pension reform for Philadelphia schools and all schools across the commonwealth, which will provide a long-term solution for them."

By his statement, Pagni said, the governor has not conceded the pension fight.

 

[Bill Godshall]

HB 1177 was amended yesterday in the PA Senate to allow Philly to impose a $2/pack cig tax (see amendment on pages 23-27)
Bill Information - House Bill 1177; Regular Session 2013-2014 - PA General Assembly

Note that the Philly tax proposal only applies to cigarettes, not OTP or e-cigs.

 

[catlady60]

I just received the following letter from my PA Senator, Jay Costa, who is in the PA Democratic Senate leadership and who has proposed taxing OTP (perhaps including e-cigs). Instead of actually reading or comprehending my letter, it appears that Jay Costa and/or his staff simply (and falsely) presumed my letter opposed increasing cigarette taxes. Notice how Costa's canned letter (that he presumably sent to smokers who opposed increasing cigarette taxes) attempted to generate support for his proposal to tax OTP.

What does OTP mean?

 

[rothenbj]

Other tobacco products.

 

[Bill Godshall]

PA Senate approves bill (HB 1177) to allow Philadelphia to impose a $2/pack cig tax (pg 23-27), referred to House Rules Cmte
Bill Information - House Bill 1177; Regular Session 2013-2014 - PA General Assembly
Senate signals support for Philly cigarette tax - The Intelligencer: Pennsylvania | politics | environmental

PA House GOP deals setback to Philly cigarette tax bill
House GOP deals setback to Philly tax bill - FOX 29 News Philadelphia | WTXF-TV
Philadelphia's request for a school funding-cigarette tax adds to drama of finalizing Pa.'s state budget | PennLive.com

PA House kills pension bill (HB 1353), PA Senate goes home, General Assembly’s budget stalemate with Gov. Corbett continues
Bill Information (History) - House Bill 1353; Regular Session 2013-2014 - PA General Assembly
Pennsylvania House cuts off pension talk; bill returned to committee | Reading Eagle - NEWS
Lawmakers plan to watch the Fourth of July fireworks at home, leaving pension issue unresolved | PennLive.com
PA Legislature shelves pension bill Gov. Tom Corbett wants as part of budget - Morning Call
Corbett mulling veto of Legislature money to push pension reform | TribLIVE

 

[Bill Godshall]

PA House amends/approves bill (HB 1177) to allow Philadelphia to impose a $2/pack cig tax (pg 23-27), referred to Senate for concurrence
Bill Information (History) - House Bill 1177; Regular Session 2013-2014 - PA General Assembly
Regular Session 2013-2014 House Bill 1177 P.N. 3932