State Update
FIU to Ban All Smoking
by Dalia Colon
The Florida Clean Indoor Air Act already prohibits smoking inside most buildings. But Jan. 11, Miami’s Florida International University will take things a step further by banning smoking campuswide — indoors and outdoors.
Hav-a-Tampa cigars closing Tampa plant
06/23/2009
MICHAEL SASSO | The Tampa Tribune
TAMPA – Tampa will lose part of its cigar heritage in August when Hav-A-Tampa shuts its factory near Seffner and lays off about 495 employees, closing a factory that has been operating since 1902.
The company announced the closing today.
Many employees there make Hav-A-Tampa’s iconic Jewels, inexpensive machine-made cigars known for their birchwood tips. Some workers have labored there for two decades or longer, including one who’s been there for 50 years, said Richard McKenzie, a senior vice president of human resources for Altadis USA, which owns Hav-A-Tampa.
Altadis tried to keep the plant open by closing it for a week or two at a time and furloughing workers. Eventually, though, the company couldn’t cope with a steep drop in consumer demand, brought on by the recession and a large new tax on tobacco products, McKenzie said.
Work that had been done in Tampa will now be performed in an Altadis plant in Puerto Rico, where it has extra manufacturing capacity, McKenzie said. The company is not closing its nearby distribution center off U.S. 301, where it employs about 150 people.
Employees on Tuesday were digesting how they would find work in an economy where more than one in 10 people in the area already are unemployed.
“I’ve been here 12 years. I know someone’s who’s been there 20 years, 22 years,” said Denise Harrison, an office manager at Hav-A-Tampa. “I’m sure we’ll all land on our feet, but it will be harder for some people other than me who may have done nothing else.”
Altadis USA plans to begin laying off workers immediately and will continue until closing the plant in late August. Workers will receive their pay through August, even if they are let go before that, McKenzie said. Employees also are receiving severance packages and job placement assistance.
Several things conspired to hurt Altadis’ sales, McKenzie said, including the recession and the growth of indoor smoking bans. The bans have especially hurt sales in cold-weather states, where it’s impractical to smoke a cigar outdoors in the winter, he said.
However, the company attributed much of its trouble to the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP, a federal program that provides health insurance to low-income children. It is funded, in part, by a new federal tax on cigars and cigarettes. McKenzie couldn’t say how much sales of Hav-A-Tampa cigars had fallen off, but the numbers have dropped significantly, he said.
Previously, federal excise taxes on cigars were limited to no more than a nickel, said Norman Sharp, president of the Cigar Association of America trade group. The tax increase, which took effect April 1, raises the maximum tax on cigars to about 40 cents, Sharp said.
Before the tax increase was passed, the cigar industry warned that consumption of cigars could fall as much as 30 percent in the year after its passage. It’s not clear yet how big of an impact the law is having on sales, Sharp said.
Harrison said she understands the company’s predicament and that Altadis has tried to treat its employees fairly, including guaranteeing employees two months of pay. Like her employer, she put part of the blame on the SCHIP tax hike.
“We can’t afford to make these cigars in the U.S. anymore,” she said.
Unlike its more upscale rivals, which favored hand-rolling and u nionized labor, Hav-A-Tampa turned to machines and nonu nionized labor to mass produce cigars, said Gary Mormino, a history professor at the University of South Florida-St. Petersburg. Company founder Eli Witt also was a pioneer in the use of wood tips and wrapping cigars in cellophane — practices that are now standard in the machine-made cigar industry, Mormino said.
“Hav-a-Tampa has to be one of the greatest commercial names,” Mormino said. “It just seems right.”
With the company now set to stop producing in Tampa, the last major cigar maker left in the Bay area will be J.C. Newman, which owns premium brands including Cuesta-Rey, Diamond Crown and La Unica. While those premium brands are made outside the United States, Newman still makes as many as 40,000 cigars a day in Tampa under its less-expensive brands, Rigoletto Black Jack, Factory No. 59 and Mexican Segundos, said company co-owner Bobby Newman.
When J.C. Newman moved to Tampa from Cleveland in 1954, there were 10 large cigar factories in the city.
“It’s a sad day,” Newman said. “We are the last ones left out of those.”
Tallahassee, Florida April 24, 2009 – Much has been written about the negative effect on Florida-based cigar manufacturers that increased state taxes on tobacco will have, but it’s the mom-and-pop smoke shop owners and their employees and customers who will be hurt the most, according to the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association.
The IPCPR has more than 2,000 members worldwide, 290 of which are located throughout the state of Florida.
“Most of our retail members are mom-and-pop operations which hire local, neighborhood folks and generate sales and income taxes that help fill the state and federal treasuries,” said Chris McCalla, legislative director of the IPCPR. “The federal government just slapped the industry with increased tobacco taxes of up to 2,500 percent. Now comes the state of Florida where some of its legislators have decided that isn’t enough.”
The Florida Senate passed a budget bill last week that includes a $1-per-ounce tax increase on cigars sold within the state. The original version of this legislation applied the tax increase to all cigars manufactured in Florida, no matter where they are sold.
“While we are grateful that Florida cigar manufacturers would be spared the additional taxes on their products sold outside the state, the tax would still apply to cigars sold in the state and it is our Florida retailers and their customers who will still suffer as a result,” McCalla explained.
McCalla appealed to members of the Florida House of Representatives to eliminate the proposed tobacco tax increase from its version of the budget.
“The price of cigars and other tobacco products is going up significantly with the recent federal increase and our industry, no doubt, will be hurt by these increases. That means thousands of jobs are at stake, along with millions of dollars in tax revenues if our retailers are driven out of business by these onerous increases,” he said.
McCalla explained that cigars are more a hobby than a habit and that, according to IPCPR promotional literature; they make “ordinary moments special and special moments extraordinary.” As such, they are subject to purchase patterns by consumers that are highly susceptible to pricing changes, particularly increases that would limit more frequent enjoyment of these legal, adult products.
“Hand-made cigars are like fine wines. They are made to be enjoyed by adults on appropriate occasions. To over-tax either would be to akin to killing the goose that lays the golden egg,” McCalla said.
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Contact:
Tony Tortorici
678/493-0313
tony@tortoricipr.com
June 20, 2008
Health department officials asked the Alachua County Commission for $600,000 to put towards a new conference room that would be used for smoking cessation classes.
The state has already given the health department $700,000 from the 1997 tobacco settlement for the project. Not only did the Commission reject the request for extra funding, they’re not even going to allow the state’s funds to be used for the project. If the extra room is added to the health department – even if the state paid for the entire building process – Alachua County would have to foot the bill for building maintenance. Today the Commission made it clear – they’re not willing to do that.
The Commission asked health department officials why money was being put towards a building addition and not towards smoking prevention materials. Public Works estimates that maintenance fees for the addition would be around $100,000 per year, and that was a deal breaker.
“I guess if you look at the cost benefit on that that just didn’t seem to be a good use of county tax payer dollars,” said Commissioner Rodney Long.
The jury’s still out on how the health department will use the $700,000 from the state or if they’ll even use it at all. The State Legislature originally gave the money to the health department for the specific purpose of building a conference room for the classes.
JOSEPH H. BROWN
The Tampa Tribune
Published: May 18, 2008
You may have seen the public service commercial. A woman brings her young daughter out to the car and straps her into a car seat. The announcer reminds us that 37,000 Americans are killed every year in automobile accidents, which made me think it was sponsored by the National Safety Council or a seat-belt advocacy group.
Then the mother gets in the driver’s seat and lights a cigarette. We are then told that 38,000 Americans die every year from secondhand tobacco smoke, and that the commercial was sponsored by a group called Tobacco Free Florida.
Thirty-eight thousand people a year die from secondhand smoke? I found that hard to believe, so I called and talked to a spokesperson for the group who then sent me a link to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report which read:
“Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States. Cigarette smoking causes an estimated 438,000 deaths, or about 1 of every 5 deaths, each year. This estimate includes approximately 38,000 deaths from secondhand smoke exposure.”
Wouldn’t Hold Up In Court
The CDC is not the first group to make such claims about breathing – not inhaling – the smoke from cigarettes. In 2006, U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona released a report that said “secondhand smoke is a major cause of disease, including lung cancer and coronary heart disease, in healthy nonsmokers.”
Here’s the problem with such claims: None of them would pass muster in a court of law. Most of the research cited in the surgeon general’s report was thrown out by a federal judge in 1993 when the Environmental Protection Agency tried to classify secondhand smoke as a carcinogen. The same would likely happen with the CDC’s data if it had to stand up to legal and scientific scrutiny.
The judge in the 1993 case said the EPA cherry-picked studies to support its claims and failed to honor scientific standards. They probably wouldn’t use, for instance, a 2003 study done on spouses of smokers that appeared in the British Medical Journal which found that “the results do not support a causal relationship between environmental tobacco smoke and tobacco-related mortality. The association between tobacco smoke and coronary heart disease and lung cancer may be considerably weaker than generally believed.”
Smoking Bans Getting Out Of Hand
Nevertheless, bogus claims of the effects of secondhand smoke are the drive behind the numerous public and workplace smoking bans passed by city councils and state legislatures over the last decade, and the long arm of government is intruding ever farther. Since the beginning of the year in California, motorists can be hit with fines up to $100 for smoking in a vehicle containing a child.
Ironically, many Republicans who talk the “smaller government, more freedom” talk stand on the sidelines and allow these intrusive bans to become law, saying in effect, “I don’t smoke, so it won’t affect me.”
But these laws do affect the rights of bar and restaurant owners to allow a legal, highly taxed activity in their privately owned businesses. I’ve never smoked and never will, but I’m bothered by these assaults on property rights based on faulty science.
So, I asked the Tobacco Free Florida spokesperson, will we soon have a law in Florida that makes smoking with children in the car a crime?
She couldn’t say, but don’t say you didn’t see it coming.
February 13, 2008
State legislatures have for years had a habit of increasing “sin taxes” – mostly on liquor and tobacco – to raise revenue. This year will be no different.
Rep. Jim Waldman, D-Coconut Creek, has introduced a bill to raise the tax on a pack of cigarettes by $1. Sen. Ted Deutch, D-Boca Raton, plans to introduce a similar bill in the state Senate. They believe that increasing the tobacco tax will lessen cigarette smoking, especially among young people. They also see a chance to reduce health care costs for tobacco-related illnesses.
Increasing the cigarette tax is worthy of consideration so long as the money is used to help treat indigent Florida residents with diseases caused by smoking. The legislation should specify – and guarantee – that the money will go to the 40 safety-net hospitals that provide 97 percent of the state’s charity care. These hospitals are facing a reduction in funds because of the state’s gloomy revenue picture.
The American Lung Association of Florida consistently gives the state an “F” because its cigarette tax is too low. At less than 34 cents a pack, Florida has the seventh-lowest tax in the nation. The amount has not been increased since 1990.
Still, it seems the $1 increase was pulled out of thin air, rather than being based on something concrete.
Twenty-five states and the District of Columbia have cigarette tax rates of $1 or more. Nine states will soon be at or above $2 per pack. New Jersey leads the country with the highest cigarette tax – $2.57 per pack. Nationwide, the average is $1.11 per pack, up 11 cents from last year.
If increasing the tobacco tax encourages more people to give up cigarettes, it would be worth it. But lawmakers should ensure the money goes to care for patients in hospitals, not up in smoke.
Zimmerman Wins Florida’s Anti-Smoking Campaign
State’s Largest Public-Health Effort Is Personal for Agency President
By Jonathan Lemonnier
Preaching or shaming smokers into quitting is a thing of the past, said Mr. Zimmerman, whose parents died as a result of cigarette smoking and is taking this battle very personally: “They’ve heard it all before. One of the most common responses our research uncovered was ‘I don’t want to be preached to by non-smokers: They just don’t get it.'”
Working with a larger agency was a determining criteria for selection. “Size insured that [the agency] had a large client base to partner with and get more leverage for the campaign,” said Ms Lynn. Leverage will indeed be needed for this campaign: under state law, all funding for the account must be spent by the end of the department’s fiscal year, which is June 30.
Repeal smoking ban for sake of pals
September 20, 2007
By JACK BRAY
Like the smoldering embers of cigar and cigarette ashes, the issue of smoking in indoor workplaces still burns. In many places. For many people. And, yeah, it bothers me a lot.
So, before I leave the “Sunshine and Smokeless State” permanently for Alabama, I would like to take one more “drag” on this topic.
The smoking ban (Amendment 6 to the Florida Constitution, approved by voters in November 2002 and effective in 2003) made smokers put out their cigars and cigarettes, but it has also, for these last, long, four years, put them out of their local bars, restaurants, meeting halls and lodges, where they ate together, drank together and talked together.
As far as I’m concerned, that separation of smokers and non-smokers who are friends, relatives, neighbors and pals, has a different stink, but one that is worse than the smoke that came from their cigars or cigarettes.
What a shame. In my opinion, there should never have been a ban. First, the Florida Clean Air Act of 1985 dealt with the issue of secondhand smoke. The happy compromise was the relegating of smoking to “smoking areas.”
Second, although I’m not a lawyer, I believe the ban violates the constitutionally recognized rights associated with property ownership. The ban, in effect, is the government telling a property owner to prohibit smoking on his property and, as such, is mandating behavior. No can do. They might just as well tell the property owner how customers should dress in their place of business.
The only reason for the ban is the allegation that second-hand smoke is injurious to the health of others. If the allegation is true, why are there exceptions in the implementation of Amendment 6? Are certain locations impervious to “dangerous smoke”? Or are these places frequented only by people who are immune and unaffected by “dangerous smoke”? Exceptions repudiate the presumed validity of the medical science that prompted the law.
So now, four years after the smoking lamp was put out, if you will, the smoke has cleared. Even though I do not smoke, I am saddened that this prohibition (reminiscent of the one of yesteryear that took our drinks from our hands) was based on questionable scientific research and is, I believe, a violation of the U.S. Constitution.
What’s more, I am saddened by the terrible reality that the ban has driven a wedge between smokers and nonsmokers. The price to be “smoke-free” has been paid for by the abrupt separation of friends and neighbors.
For this very powerful reason, I say the Florida law should be repealed. The Clean Air Act should be strengthened to achieve a compromise that allows everyone to get back together.
And so, as I fly off to another state for the rest of my life, I urge you to ask each other, is the absence of smoke worth the absence of friends?
Jack Bray is a retired broadcasting executive who lives in Dunedin. Guest columnists write their own opinions, which do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.
Gladwin County Record
Lawrence W. Reed
President
Mackinac Center for Public Policy
140 W. Main St.
P. O. Box 568
Midland, MI 48640
Phone: 989-631-0900
Fax: 989-631-0964
Web: www.mackinac.org
By JEROME C. ARNETT JR.
The federal government’s 30-year anti-smoking crusade has been so successful, there are now more ex-smokers than smokers in the United States. Now, around a quarter of the population continues to smoke cigarettes. That’s given rise over the past decade to a fabricated health hazard: secondhand smoke.
Florida Department of State
Division of Elections
Article X, Section 27 Summary: To protect people, especially youth, from addiction, disease, and other health hazards of using tobacco, the Legislature shall use some Tobacco Settlement money annually for a comprehensive statewide tobacco education and prevention program using Centers for Disease Control best practices. Specifies some program components, emphasizing youth, requiring one-third of total annual funding for advertising. Annual funding is 15% of 2005 Tobacco Settlement payments to Florida, adjusted annually for inflation. Provides definitions. Effective immediately.
Read
By David McAllister
By JIM SAUNDERS and RAY WEISS
Staff Writers
http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/Headlines/03NewsHEAD03070305.htm
Zimmerman Wins Florida’s Anti-Smoking CampaignState’s Largest Public-Health Effort Is Personal for Agency PresidentBy Jonathan Lemonnier
