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Letters to the Editor

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   Thanks  -  The Editor

Correspondence From Our Readers

Jan from Oregon writes . . .

A Reality Check For Legislators & Gov. Kitzhaber

The Oregon Healthcare Plan recently needed 6.5M to keep it operational. Five million was from other State programs and 1.5 M from the State Emergency Fund. How sad! This action would not have been necessary if HB-3371 had been allowed to stand.

Government needs to understand what every business owner knows, you cannot gouge your customers and expect them to continue to support you. It is a market driven economy and the citizens will find other avenues to keep their hard earned dollars. If you give the citizens a reasonable tax, they will pay it and support important programs.

There are only fifteen stores like mine left in this state. Will putting the remaining fifteen shops out of business solve the Oregon Healthcare Plan's financial crisis? You can bet that there will be less than fifteen shops by the time the legislature reconvenes next year. Many of us are making our cigar & tobacco sales a much smaller part of our business operations, choosing instead to go in new directions to protect our investments, further eroding the excise tax collections.

You can have "feel good" legislation, or you can have excise tax revenue, but you cannot have it both ways. Several Oregon retailers gave testimony and wrote letters this past legislative session on HB-3371. We told the legislators on the various committees what was happening in the marketplace and how much it has cost us and ultimately the state in revenue. Yet, there are foolish legislators who see a decline in revenue collections as a sign that the smoking rates are declining in this state. Taxation as a form of social engineering is a very costly proposition.

In this era of "political correctness" conventional wisdom suggest that cutting the OTP is a no-no for politicians. But the collapse of the excise tax revenue is now a major concern for the State Treasury. Five million dollars cut from other state programs and one and a half million from the Emergency Fund! Where will you cut next time? How much more can be taken from the Emergency Fund? Legislators had the chance last session, maybe some clearer heads will prevail next legislative session.

Respectfully submitted,
Jan Esler-Rowe

If you have information regarding pending tobacco legislation in your local or state government, please share it with us and we will, in turn, share it with all in these pages. If you want to keep abreast of pending federal legislation, go to http://thomas.loc.gov for a listing of all bills before Congress. For tobacco-specific legislation, you will have to use their search engine. Look under the Legislation column, click on 106th under the Bill Summary and Status heading. Next, Search using Word/Phrase, and when the new page comes up, type the word "tobacco" in the Word/Phrase box. Here you will find all current tobacco legislation before Congress. Of special note is #25 HR 2579 - To impose restrictions on the sale of cigars.

Hope you'll join us again.
                 -The Editor

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