ATTN: OHIO Potential State Legislation

[Acesfull]

Got this in an email from my local tinderbox guy...

[SIZE=2] We all can get fat on a daily diet of negative news, but I feel I must bring you up to speed on some important tax issues currently being discussed in Ohio so, I apologize in advance for this cruel dessert. As I mentioned in my last email, the new SCHIP( State Children's Health Insurance Program) Federal tax takes effect April 1 and will impact the price of all cigars and other tobacco products. We are still sorting out what this price increase will be as of April 1 and right now it is impossible to get a firm handle on it since some manufacturers are saying nothing about how they are going to pass on the new tax while others are raising their prices in conjunction with the new tax. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=2][/SIZE]
[SIZE=2]To make matters more puzzling, currently there is a bill in the Ohio Senate, Senate Bill 37, that proposes an increase in OTP( other tobacco products, cigars, pipe tobaccos and not cigarettes) tax from 17% to 54% effective July 1, 2009 and is sponsored by three Senators, Joseph Schiavoni( sd33@maild.sen.state.oh.us ), Ray Miller( rmiller@maild.sen.state.oh.us ) and Dale Miller( SD23@maild.sen.state.oh.us ). I would highly recommend that you contact these three Senators along with your local Senator, Representative and the Governor and ask them to reconsider this proposed tax since its effect on cigar prices would make the SCHIP look like chump change. In our current economic crisis and on the heels of the SCHIP increase this new tax would be devastating to you as a consumer and possibly deadly to us as a retailer.You can obtain email addresses for your local representatives from the Ohio.gov site. [/SIZE]

[Patrick B]

Ouch! First I've heard of an OTP tax.

I'm not down with OTP!

[atquick]

I knew this was going to happen. It would have only been a matter of time.

Personally, its a load of bull. What the government doesn't realize is that this plan is not going to work. Its going to fail horribly. Its a big WASTE of time and effort. But, you know. Everyone wanted a change in the White House. They got it, and now, they must be thinking, "What the hell did we just do?".

I voted for McCain. Because I knew this was going to happen. I knew they were going to force many Americans to stop smoking. Personally, its our right to do what we want to do. If we want to ruin our lives smoking and inhaling our cigarettes. So what, thats no one elses business.

I think we(U.S. Citizens) are being a bunch of cowards. We just do as we are told. I thought this was a free country. I understand there are rules and limitations. But, seriously? How many more times is it going to take for us to tell the Government to stop trampling all over our Constitutional rights?

I have sent MANY emails to my Senator and my Mayor about the whole no smoking thing. I have sent MANY emails to my Senator about the SCHIP and personally. I can't do it alone. I know there are some people who are emailing as much as I have, but, to get these guys to realize that what they are doing is completely unconstitutional, we have to have a large amount of people emailing and complaining. Chances of them actually taking what we say and siding with us may be a long shot. But, atleast I can say I tried.

[jedipastor]

Is there any update on this?

[doublebassmusician]

What kind of things did you say in your emails?

[doublebassmusician]

Well I gave it a shot. I went with a "Do you believe that everyone has the right to live their life however they want as long as what they do doesn't conflict with the right of other people?" approach.

Apparently my reasoning abilities have been wrong all this time.
I asked him how my pipe smoking, alone, In my own house conflicts with the rights of other people.

Here's Senator Miller's response

Dear Chris,
I do believe that everyone has the right to live their life as they want as long as they don't conflict with the rights of others. However, people don't realize the impact they have on others. For example, the public pays for about half the health care in this country. Anything you do that harms your health (smoking, riding a motorcycle without a helmet, overeating high fat foods, etc.) interferes with the rights of other to enjoy their wealth. I'm not saying we should necessarily regulate all these things, but my point is that are actions affect the rights of others more than we often realize.


Notice everyone's good friend alcohol isn't mentioned there.
Not that I have anything against alcohol or sports, but where are the pictures of diseased livers and dead drunk driver's thrown through their windshields on cases of beer? If I were to buy a football, then I want a big warning on the front that says "DON'T FORGET TO PURCHASE A CUP TODAY" Then below that a picture of a bruised and swollen nutsack.

[Acesfull]

unbelievable. i hope CRA helps us out with this, im sure they are at some level.. this is unjust

[jedipastor]

Originally Posted by doublebassmusician

Well I gave it a shot. I went with a "Do you believe that everyone has the right to live their life however they want as long as what they do doesn't conflict with the right of other people?" approach.

Apparently my reasoning abilities have been wrong all this time.
I asked him how my pipe smoking, alone, In my own house conflicts with the rights of other people.

Here's Senator Miller's response

Dear Chris,
I do believe that everyone has the right to live their life as they want as long as they don't conflict with the rights of others. However, people don't realize the impact they have on others. For example, the public pays for about half the health care in this country. Anything you do that harms your health (smoking, riding a motorcycle without a helmet, overeating high fat foods, etc.) interferes with the rights of other to enjoy their wealth. I'm not saying we should necessarily regulate all these things, but my point is that are actions affect the rights of others more than we often realize.


Notice everyone's good friend alcohol isn't mentioned there.
Not that I have anything against alcohol or sports, but where are the pictures of diseased livers and dead drunk driver's thrown through their windshields on cases of beer? If I were to buy a football, then I want a big warning on the front that says "DON'T FORGET TO PURCHASE A CUP TODAY" Then below that a picture of a bruised and swollen nutsack.

The main problem with this and ALL regulation that includes tobacco is that they treat all tobacco products as if they were cigarettes. There are NO STUDIES that I"m aware of that even hint that cigars and pipes are anywhere near as bad as cigarettes or even dip.

But the decision was made to treat all tobacco like cigarettes, so they can get away with this "if it's bad for you it's bad for society" line. That is true, in my opinion, for smoking cigarettes--tons of research on this. But it's simply not true for pipes and cigars.

[Big A]

This is unbelievable. Jumping from 17% to 54% is a little extreme. All this will do is make B&Ms close.