Category — Legislation

The major tobacco companies are again lobbying for legislation in Texas that would impose special taxes on small cigarette manufacturers that have not settled with the state for tobacco-related claims.

Texas is one of only four states that are not signatories to the 1998 tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (Minnesota, Mississippi and Florida are the others).  Those states separately settled their lawsuits against the major tobacco companies.  Minnesota and Mississippi have imposed special taxes on cigarettes made by non-signatories; Florida and Texas have not.

The major tobacco companies have pursued the special tax in Texas since at least 2004.  The major tobacco companies say that the legislation is needed for force the non-signatories to pay for the health care costs associated with smoking, even though the claims that prompted the Texas settlement have never been asserted against the smaller companies.  The Texas Comptroller’s Office has asserted that the legislation would raise revenue, although it may be unconstitutional as a disparate tax.

For questions and/or comments, please contact Bryan Haynes, Troutman Sanders Tobacco Law Team Co-Leader, at 804.697.1420 or by email.

The Massachusetts legislature has introduced a measure that would impose tobacco excise taxes on e-cigarettes.

House bill number 4291, introduced by the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing on July 19, 2012, would impose substantial excise tax increases on other tobacco products, such as cigars, smoking tobacco and smokeless tobacco.  [Read more →]

Last year, we reported on a bill that would exempt from FDA’s reach so-called “traditional” cigars — cigars wrapped in leaf tobacco, containing no filter and weighing at least six pounds per 1,000 count. [Read more →]

Pending before the New York legislature is a bill that would impose an outright ban on electronic cigarettes.  Opponents of  the bill note that FDA is on the verge of regulating e-cigarettes, and that a ban on the products is therefore unwarranted. [Read more →]

For some time, Vermont law has prohibited anyone, other than licensed dealers, distributors, and retailers from purchasing cigarettes, roll-your-own tobacco, little cigars, and snuff through the mail or other electronic networks, such as the Internet or by telephone. [Read more →]

Last week, anti-tobacco Senators Durbin (D-IL), Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Blumenthal (D-CT) introduced the so-called “Tobacco Tax Equity Act,” Senate Bill 3081. [Read more →]

Much has been written about the so-called “Baucus amendment” to the $109 billion federal transportation bill.  [Read more →]

A bill that would have exempted Subsequent Participating Manufacturers (SPMs) to the Master Settlement Agreement from Mississippi’s so-called “equity tax” or “nonsettling manufacturers fee” has died in committee. [Read more →]

A bill pending in the Tennessee legislature (SB 3578 / HB 3632) would expand enforcement of escrow obligations. [Read more →]

A bill has been introduced in the New Mexico legislature that would more than double the tax rate on OTP — tobacco products other than cigarettes, such as smokeless and cigars — from 25% of the product’s value to 57% of the product’s value. [Read more →]