Below is a listing of the latest news on legislative issues and anti-smoking movements affecting your personal freedom and rights to enjoy cigars. Get Involved, Learn about the Issues, and Take Action!
Bloomberg Mulling Over Smoking Ban At NYC Parks, Beaches
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| August 22nd, 2010, 02:11 PM | New York |
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VIDEO: NEW YORK (CBS 2) – From the inside-out, there may be a new “no-go” when it comes to smoking.
Mayor Bloomberg’s anti-smoking crusade could be coming to a city park or public beach near you, a plan plenty of people say crosses the line, reports CBS 2′s Dave Carlin.
CBS 2 has learned that Mayor Bloomberg is looking at a possible smoking ban for all city parks and public beaches.
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Tobacco companies sue NYC over signs, delay Mass. effort
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| July 14th, 2010, 02:11 PM | New York |
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Graphic anti-smoking posters of diseased lungs, brains and teeth — required where cigarettes are sold in New York City — have triggered a legal fight. Now, Massachusetts is holding off on a similar mandate.
New York, known for a tough stance on tobacco, in December became the first U.S. city to require stores to post 4-square-foot warnings showing the physical effects of smoking near tobacco displays or smaller ones at each register. Non-compliance could result in fines up to $2,000.
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Bloomberg Warms Up to NYC Park, Beaches Smoking Ban
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| July 12th, 2010, 02:11 PM | New York |
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Mayor Michael Bloomberg said last week that he’s leaning towards banning smoking in the city’s 1,700 parks and other public outdoor recreational spaces, as well as its seven beaches.
"We're talking about banning smoking on beaches and in parks," Bloomberg said last Tuesday at a news conference, as reported by the Wall Street Journal. "Overwhelmingly, when you ask people in parks or on beaches, they say they just don't want smokers there."
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Cigar Taxes Soar in New York
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| June 22nd, 2010, 02:11 PM | New York |
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Cigar taxes in New York State will soon be among the highest in the nation. Last night, New York's politicians voted to raise the tax on cigars from 46 percent of the wholesale cost to 75 percent, a 63 percent increase. The new tax goes into effect August 1.
The striking rise in taxes is the result of an emergency vote held in Albany to keep the state government operating. The big target was cigarettes, and taxes on cigarettes will go up $1.20 per pack on July 1. The state also intends to tax cigarettes sold tax-free to tourists on Native American reservations in the state.
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Taxes send Uptown cigar store south
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| June 8th, 2010, 02:11 PM | New York |
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KINGSTON — For the past 14 years, cigar connoisseurs could go into the Uptown Cigar Company to smoke and socialize with others who shared a passion for the stogie.
That will all change at the end of the month, when owner Michelle Tuchman closes the doors to her Uptown business.
Tuchman said state tobacco taxes are forcing her to abandon her retail store at 32 John St. and move her Internet business to Florida, where she will be able sell her products free from the high excise taxes New York state levies.
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NY cigar, pipe smokers furious over proposed tobacco tax
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| June 8th, 2010, 02:11 PM | New York |
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VIDEO: COLONIE, N.Y. -- NEWS10 caught a couple of protests on Tuesday over tobacco taxes.
First, the New York Association of Convenience Stores joined forces with several state lawmakers to demand that Governor Paterson finally collect taxes on cigarettes that are sold on Native American reservations.
Merchants who do collect the taxes say the Native Americans have an unfair advantage, claiming that lots of "mom & pop" stores are going out of business.
Paterson promised earlier this year that he would get the sales tax that's owed the state, about $ 1 billion annually, according to lawmakers. But they say, so far, no action.
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Town of Tonawanda Bans Smoking in Outdoor Locations
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| May 18th, 2010, 02:11 PM | New York |
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TOWN OF TONAWANDA, NY (WKBW) -- The Town of Tonawanda passed a policy asked for no smoking in the areas of Town buildings, swimming pools, and ball fields. Dozens of signs will be posted around 12 town parks and some town buildings. Compliance with the new rule is completely voluntary.
The Erie-Niagara Tobacco-Free Coalition is behind the idea. Tobacco companies spend 11 million dollars a day advertising in New York State, according to Director Anthony Billoni. And when it comes to smoking, the idea of out of sight out of mind works.
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Binghamton to snuff out smoking in parks
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| May 17th, 2010, 02:11 PM | New York |
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BINGHAMTON -- Start getting ready to put out your cigarettes if you plan to visit a Binghamton park.
No smoking will be the rule in all city parks by the start of summer season under a resolution being considered by the city council.
"We want to encourage health," said Carol Quinlivan, assistant director of recreation, during a council work session Monday. "People tend to bring children to parks. It (the resolution) is sending a message about health and encouraging children not to smoke."
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Hyde Park limits smoking at 2 parks
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| May 13th, 2010, 02:11 PM | New York |
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HYDE PARK — Come June 1, the ball fields and other areas of Hackett Hill and Pinewoods parks where children play will be off limits for smoking.
The Hyde Park town board voted 4-1 Monday night to create tobacco-free zones at the two town parks — one on East Market Street and the other on Pinewoods Road. Smoking will not be permitted in the areas of the parks where children are present: picnic, sports and recreational areas and the parking lots.
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In New York, More Evidence the Tobacco Tax Has Everything to do with Big Government
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| May 4th, 2010, 02:11 PM | New York |
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David Paterson's New York is in a whole heap of trouble. The state is barely keeping its head above water with a series of stop-gap spending bills to keep the lights on until the legislature and Gov. Paterson take serious action to bring the budget into balance. This is almost certain to be achieved via what is becoming an annual tradition in Albany - crippling tax hikes coupled with spineless defferal of responsibility to next year's crop of politicians.
Looking at the governor's latest "gap-closing plan" - I prefer to call it a status quo maintenance plan - a couple things jump out. Among roughly $1 billion in "revenue actions," he includes yet another tax increase on tobacco products. In addition to his previous call for a $1 per pack cigarette tax increase, Paterson now insists on a 95 percent tax increase on chewing tobacco, cigars, pipe tobacco, and rolling tobacco, along with a whopping 122 percent tax increase on snuff.
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Turning to Albany to Preserve a Smoke-Filled Room
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| February 8th, 2010, 01:11 PM | New York |
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When Nat Sherman, the venerable Midtown tobacconist, opened its new showroom on 42nd Street showroom a few years ago, it quickly ran into a problem. The showroom included a private smoking lounge, known as the Johnson Club Room, where members and guests could enjoy a drink or a snack along with their cigars, pipes, and cigarettes. But under New York law, smoking is forbidden wherever food or beverages are served to the public.
When city officials twice rebuffed the company’s requests for a waiver, Nat Sherman sought the intervention of a higher power: The New York State Legislature.
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New Yorkers Divided Over Graphic Anti-Smoking Ads In Stores
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| January 30th, 2010, 01:11 PM | New York |
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VIDEO: City health officials are requiring stores that sell tobacco products to display graphic anti-smoking signs by March 1, but some experts and other New Yorkers question the effectiveness of the ad campaigns. NY1's Grace Rauh filed the following report.
At Montague Street Bagels in Brooklyn Heights, customers don't have to look far for a reminder of the dangers of smoking. There's one sign showing a damaged brain next to the cash register and another sign with blackened lungs on the back wall.
Starting March 1, any city shops that sell cigarettes and other tobacco products that do not display these arresting anti-smoking signs risk fines of up to $2,000.
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Blowing Smoke at a Ban
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| December 31st, 2009, 01:11 PM | New York |
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GIVE credit to the first guy to light up a cigarette inside GoldBar on a recent Saturday night: at least he was pretending to be discreet.
Between puffs, the smoker, a 30-something man with a tight T-shirt, a gold watch and a gym membership, slyly obscured his cigarette behind the knee-high table that held his $400 bottle of Belvedere, assorted mixers and a pack of Parliaments. In turn, the cocktail waitresses flanking the room — who, at 12:30 a.m., still outnumbered the patrons — pretended not to notice.
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Ban on Flavored Tobacco Products Becomes City Law
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| October 28th, 2009, 02:11 PM | New York |
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Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg signed legislation on Wednesday to prohibit the sale of most forms of flavored tobacco products in New York City. The new law is more extensive than the federal Food and Drug Administration's ban on candy- and fruit-flavored cigarettes, which took effect last month.
The City Council approved the bill on Oct. 14. The legislation covers "chocolate, vanilla, honey, candy, cocoa, dessert, alcoholic beverage, herb or spice flavors," but exempts "tobacco, menthol, mint or wintergreen flavors."
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Proposal of Smoking Ban Stirs a Sense of Tolerance
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| September 15th, 2009, 06:22 AM | New York |
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We’ve come such a long way that in New York City, even many smokers feel guilty about smoking these days — if a walk through City Hall Park on Tuesday was any indication.
But what of the city health commissioner’s proposal on Monday to ban smoking in public parks? In a city where people — tall, short, fat, thin, rich, poor, pregnant, stinky, perfumed — have turned peaceful coexistence in crowded quarters like subways and sidewalks into an art, there was a widespread feeling that public parks should also be a place of tolerance.
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New York Eyes ‘No Smoking’ Outdoors, Too
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| September 14th, 2009, 06:22 AM | New York |
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New York City’s workplace smoking ban six years ago drove cigarette and cigar puffers outdoors. But soon some of the outdoors may be off limits, too: The city’s health commissioner, Dr. Thomas A. Farley, said Monday that he would seek to ban smoking at city parks and beaches.
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SMOKE AND IRE OVER FREE JAVA
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| August 31st, 2009, 06:22 AM | New York |
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Put down that coffee, and come out with your hands up!
The owner of a Financial District tobacco shop was amazed to learn he was violating the law by offering his customers a free cup of joe while they legally puffed away on his cigars.
Vince Nastri III, the third-generation owner of Barclay Rex -- where bankers, City Hall staffers, lawyers and detectives smoke while sitting in plush leather chairs or browsing in the walk-in humidor -- complained that the city is "trying to take away my livelihood over a cop of coffee."
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NEW YORK GOVERNOR PROPOSES NEW TAXES ON CIGARS
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| December 16th, 2008, 12:08 PM | New York |
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ALBANY, N.Y., December 16 – The proposed New York state budget submitted by Governor David Paterson totals $121.1 billion and includes new taxes on cigars and tobacco retailers.
Paterson's own description of the proposed changes in the cigar tax reads:
"Reform the Cigar Tax. Modifies the taxation of cigars to impose a tax of $0.50 per cigar to simplify the administration of the tax. The current tax is equal to 37 percent of the wholesale price or approximately $0.34 per cigar."
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