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NATO NEWS
BY TOM BRIANT
California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Indi-
ana, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts,
Mississippi, Nebraska, New Jersey, New
Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Rhode Is-
land, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.
Although the California legislature
did not pass a bill to raise the state ciga-
rette and OTP tax rates, a petition to
place a question on the November ballot
was certified. This means that Califor-
nia voters will vote on whether to raise
the cigarette and OTP tax rates by $2
per pack and increase the OTP tax rate
proportionately in line with the higher
cigarette tax.
In Missouri, there are two pend-
ing ballot questions. One ballot ques-
tion would increase the state’s current
17 cents per pack cigarette tax rate to
23 cents per pack by 2021 and increase
the OTP tax rate by another 5 percent.
The second ballot question would in-
crease the cigarette tax rate by 60 cents
per pack by the year 2020 and impose a
67 cent per-pack fee on those cigarette
manufacturers that are not a part of the
Master Settlement Agreement.
E-Cigarette and Vapor Taxes
Pennsylvania’s e-cigarette and vapor
products tax of 40 percent of the whole-
sale price joins four other states that are
already taxing e-cigarettes and vapor
products, including Kansas (20 cents per
ml of nicotine), Louisiana and North
Carolina (both at 5 cents per ml of nico-
tine), and Minnesota (95 percent of the
wholesale price).
The other states that had e-cigarette
and vapor tax bills pending but have not
been passed include Hawaii, Kentucky,
Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Missis-
sippi, New Jersey, New Mexico, New
York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont,
Virginia,Washington and West Virginia.
State Minimum Age Bills
During 2016, 17 state legislatures had
bills introduced to raise the legal age to
purchase tobacco products to either age
19 or age 21. So far this year, only Cali-
fornia enacted a statewide law to increase
the legal minimum age to 21. California
joins Hawaii as the only two states with
an age 21 law. Bills introduced to raise
the legal age to 21 in Connecticut, Il-
linois, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachu-
setts, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York,
Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee,
Utah, Vermont, Washington and West
Virginia did not pass, nor did a bill in
Iowa that would have raised the legal age
to 19 years old.
Local Ordinances
The real battleground on tobacco re-
strictions is on the local level. For 2016,
NATO is projecting that the association
will be monitoring and responding to
some 200 local tobacco ordinances—dou-
ble the number of ordinances in 2015.
One of the major local regulatory trends
is a ban on the sale of flavored tobacco
products. Cities in six states have adopted
flavor bans, including 47 cities and towns
in Massachusetts, nine in California, six in
both Minnesota and New York, three in
New Jersey and two in Illinois.
On the minimum legal age issue, nu-
merous cities in 12 different states have
adopted a higher legal age, including 122
cities and towns in Massachusetts, 19 lo-
calities in New Jersey, 10 cities in Kansas,
five towns in Missouri, New York and
Ohio, three cities in Illinois, two cities in
both Utah and Washington, and one city
each in Arizona, Florida and Idaho.
TBI
Thomas Briant is the
executive director
and legal counsel of
NATO, the National
Association of Tobacco
Outlets.
20
TOBACCO BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016
The real
battleground
on tobacco
restrictions is on
the local level.
For 2016, NATO is
projecting that the
association will
be monitoring and
responding to some
200 local tobacco
ordinances—double
the number of
ordinances in 2015.