Legislators also tripled the tax on tobacco--this in one of the three top tobacco-producing states in the nation.
The measure, which landed on ballots this month, would have increased the state tax on tobacco in the Golden State by about a buck a pack.
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Tanzania and Uganda have banned smoking in public places and countries like Ghana, Kenya and Mauritius have ratified the WHO tobacco control treaty, which promises to increase tax on tobacco sales, introduce smoking bans and reduce tobacco production.
Opponents will no doubt bring up his work on behalf of tobacco companies and ask, as others have, whether it impelled him to kill a statewide anti-smoking programme in 2006 and to twice veto a bill that would have replaced the state's grocery tax with a higher tax on tobacco.
Finally, being a "smoking pariah" now, with never a day in hospital in my life, I feel that any treatment I may need in the future has long been covered by my income tax and duty paid on tobacco, so now I'm only smoking (legally obtained) duty free tobacco.
Ray Story, chief executive of the Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette Association, warned that tax rises on e-cigarettes would only benefit tobacco companies, to the detriment of public health.
Recent studies would place the blame squarely on the federal tobacco tax.
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However, she raised concerns about funding proposals for councils and the public health levy which places an additional tax on large retailers selling alcohol and tobacco.
In effect, the lawyers are becoming joint business partners with the states and the tobacco companies in levying a tax on smokers.
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They understand that few people are willing to defend tobacco, so proposing a global tax on cigarettes sounds noble, even though the real goal is to give the WHO a permanent stream of revenue.
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Congress allowed the income tax to expire and focused, instead, on tariffs on products like tobacco and liquor.
Mr Noda's ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) had recently proposed slapping another two yen tax on cigarettes and selling down the government's stake in Japan Tobacco, which many people saw as a sensible way for a debt-strapped government to help pay the huge costs of post-tsunami reconstruction.
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He also indicates that it is rather challenging to figure out how to apply the same tax to e-cigarettes since the excises tend to be based on weight of tobacco.
The decision is a temporary, first step while the Alcohol and Tobacco Trade and Tax Bureau, or TTB, continues to consider final rules on alcohol labels.
It was the first state in the country to decide that its pension funds would hold no tobacco-company shares or bonds, and the second to put a tax on cigarettes.
The healthcare and criminal justice costs associated with alcohol and tobacco far surpass the tax revenue they generate, and little of the taxes collected on these substances is contributed to the offset of their substantial social and health costs.
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Tobacco companies are routinely threatened with every tax and sales restriction going, and are perennial fixtures on the list.
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Republican Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi --- a former tobacco lobbyist -- also recently approved a 277 percent hike on his state's cigarette tax.
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