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Beshear still calling for raising cigarette tax  

Gov. Steve Beshear said yesterday that he continues to support an increase in Kentucky's cigarette tax as a way to raise revenue and cut the state's high rate of smoking.

"Folks, I like to be number one in Kentucky," Beshear said, speaking at the monthly meeting of the Louisville Forum, a nonpartisan public-interest group. "But there are some things in Kentucky we're number one in that we ought to be ashamed of."'

Kentucky has the nation's highest rate of smoking and one of the lowest cigarette taxes in the country -- currently ranking 47th, at 30 cents a pack. It also has some of the highest rates of smoking-related illnesses, including cancer, respiratory ailments and vascular and heart disease.

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Tax issue may merit session  

Republican Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant said Wednesday lawmakers should consider a short special session on a tobacco-tax increase, if a study commission recommends one.

But he said that's only if there's an agreement between the House and Senate before lawmakers came to Jackson.

A commission appointed by Gov. Haley Barbour to study changes to the state tax code is expected to complete its work later this month. Most believe the group will recommend a tobacco-tax hike. But how much it would raise the Mississippi tax, which is among the lowest in the nation, hasn't been divulged.

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Speaker McCoy against fall special session to vote on tobacco tax 

House Speaker Billy McCoy on Wednesday resisted the idea of a special legislative session this fall to hike cigarette taxes, and said lawmakers can approve the measure early next year at less expense to taxpayers.

But even if the matter is postponed until the next regular session begins in January, a debate over how much tobacco should be taxed and what to do with the revenue generated is expected.

Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant has suggested a one-day special session this fall as a way to increase the state's 18-cent cigarette tax. A committee appointed to study the tax system is expected this month to recommend the hike.

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• No-smoking housing catches on in Dallas-Fort Worth  

Welcome to the latest no-smoking frontier: private homes. Smoke-free housing could become as common as no-pet policies.

Nationwide, more landlords are barring tenants from lighting up to reduce neighbors' exposure to secondhand smoke, joining a long list of cities, companies and hotels that have done the same. The Smokefree Apartment House Registry features about 300 listings nationally, up from 11 when it began in 2001. . . .

California is the leader in smoke-free apartments, with 17 cities, including Santa Barbara and Sacramento, having passed policies.

In North Texas, smoke-free housing is scarce. But a handful of new apartment complexes offer smoke-free or partially smoke-free living, reflecting a budding trend. . . .

The Dakota in Dallas had no trouble filling its smoke-free, 20-unit building, said Kimberly Walker, regional property manager for owner Lincoln Property Co. The new complex has 496 apartments in 25 buildings near Northwest Highway and North Central Expressway.

No smoking is part of a bigger picture for two projects.

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EDITORIAL: Tobacco taxes  

We agree with Mississippi House Speaker Billy McCoy's position that legislative action on a tobacco tax increase can wait until the 2009 regular session.

However, when the regular session begins, Mississippians should expect a quick resolution of the tax issue that has cost taxpayers millions of dollars in regular and special session expenses to the indulgence of lawmakers and a governor unable and unwilling to come to terms. . . .

We support an increased cigarette tax to the national average - $1.18 per pack. We believe the revenue stream it would generate should be used for health care for Medicaid patients treated for tobacco-induced illnesses and for tobacco-preventive measures among students in public schools.

The House is long on record in support of increasing Mississippi's second-lowest-in-the-nation tobacco tax. The Senate has voted for it in past legislative sessions, but it was vetoed by Gov. Barbour.

Now, the governor is on record saying he will support a tobacco tax increase after his special commission reports, and that is expected by the end of August. . . .

In addition to cigarette taxes, the Legislature should consider reforming other tobacco taxes (smokeless and cigars) to make the taxes proportionately equitable -? and high enough to discourage tobacco use, especially among the young.

No benefit comes from using tobacco in any form or any amount.

The governor, Senate and House leaders in effect need to settle the tax issues before the 2009 session begins.

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• Report challenges tobacco industry’s advertising claims  

The finding is important as it challenges the tobacco industry’s assertion that advertising serves to make consumers aware of different brands and does not directly encourage them to smoke. . . .

The research, published in the peer review Journal of Health Economics, shows that the introduction of comprehensive bans on tobacco advertising reduced per capita consumption 23,5% in developing countries between1990 and 2005 , while partial bans cut per capita consumption 13,6%. However, the effects were much less dramatic in richer countries . . .

“If you walk down a street in Nairobi, all you see is tobacco advertising,” he said.

“In rich countries, a lot of products are advertised heavily and tobacco ads get lost among them.” . . .

Blecher advocate s a total ban on tobacco advertising, saying the limited ban in place in SA, allows the industry to exploit the loopholes in the law.

“If you ban one media, the industry moves its resources — it becomes marginally less effective, but it still has an effect,” he said.

The Tobacco Products Control Amendment Bill, which is before the National Council of Provinces, proposes further restrictions on advertising, only permitting those at the point of sale and in trade communication.

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EDITORIAL: Get the smokes tax  

Gov. David Paterson should sign this latest law, which was designed to avoid any confrontation with tribes by collecting the tax from the middlemen who distribute the unstamped cigarettes to them. This kind of blatant tax avoidance only legitimizes not paying your fair share in other markets. Investigations in the past have shown that illicit profits often get entangled in other criminal enterprises. And it hurts the small convenience store and gas station operators who sell legitimate, but more expensive, packs.

After signing the law, Paterson will have a stronger hand to negotiate a political solution that offers economic development with tribes, including the Poospatucks and Shinnecocks on eastern Long Island, who aren't flush with revenue from gaming.

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Honor Indian Treaties 

The U.S. Constitution calls treaties "the Supreme Law of the Land." And yet New York State is about to violate U.S. treaties that have lasted over 200 years. The state plans to implement regulations that would impose sales tax on petroleum and tobacco products sold on Indian lands. These regulations would violate sacred treaties between the U.S. and Indian tribes. . . .

We urge you to explore this topic and learn more about this issue. Tell Governor David A. Paterson how you feel. Urge the Governor to honor the supreme law of the land. Because if you break a treaty, you break the law

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• Marlboro-maker backs NY bid to tax Indian sales 

Cigarette-maker Philip Morris, supports a New York state Assembly bill that would solve a long battle over collecting taxes on cigarettes sold by Indian reservation stores by making wholesalers pay the levy, a company spokesman said on Thursday.

The Indian tribes would then seek refunds for the taxes paid on any cigarettes that were sold to other Indians, explained David Sutton, a spokesman for Altria Group (MO.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), which owns Philip Morris.

"But if you or I went as non-Native Americans consumers, the tax on the product would have already been paid on the wholesale level and they would not be entitled to a refund of that tax under this bill because you and I are not tribal members," he explained. . . .

"We are demonstratively a contributor to the economy and that is what our treaties would protect," Porter said, estimating tobacco sales were as much as $200 million in 2007.

He added: "The 5,000 jobs we have created through gaming or through our tobacco trade really all gets spent in western New York. Albany's effort to take that money and redistribute it downstate is probably not something most people realize, that they are going to appreciate." . . .

Philip Morris wants the taxes collected, the spokesman said. "We want all of our brands sold through legitimate distribution channels with taxes paid, laws respected."

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Cary Silverman: Defender Of Big Tobacco? 

Cary Silverman, who is forging a David vs. Goliath race against Ward 2 Council member Jack Evans, was called "a gun industry lobbyist" in a news release last week by Evans's campaign.

The release attacked lawyer Silverman's comments at a debate between he and Evans, held at the Phillips Collection auditorium and sponsored by the Dupont Circle ANC and the Dupont Circle Citizens Association. . . .

Turns out Silverman's law firm, Shook Hardy and Bacon, represents gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson, not to mention other big interests, like pharmaceutical giant Merck and tobacco giant Philip Morris.

Silverman said while his law firm represents those clients, he does not. In litigation or lobbying, he said.

But in 2005, he certainly was defending big tobacco.

He co-wrote a 72-page article published in the Kansas Law Review, which questions whether state consumer protection laws go too far.

The article uses lawsuits against tobacco companies as an example, particularly claims filed against the companies regarding the harm of "light" cigarettes after a multi-billion settlement the industry made with states in 1998.

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Seneca leader blasts tax bill  

The leader of the Seneca Nation of Indians said action by the state Senate to support a bill seeking to end the rights of Native American tribes to sell tax-free cigarettes is "veto worthy."

Maurice John Sr., Seneca Nation president, said he was dismayed by the vote, taken Aug. 8, that caught everyone from lobbyists to Albany insiders by surprise. By collecting state sales tax on Native American-controlled cigarette transactions, New York officials estimated another $400 million could be added to state coffers.

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Seneca officials take their cigarette tax case to Albany  

Seneca Nation representatives Thursday urged the Paterson administration to back off on any plans to collect sales taxes on cigarette sales by Indian retailers.

A half-dozen Seneca government officials and business leaders traveled to Albany just a week after the State Senate gave final passage to a bill aimed at ending the tax-free sales as a way to help bring in $400 million or more in uncollected tax revenue.

Aides to Gov. David A. Paterson, who is vacationing, have declined to say what he might do with the legislation. He is being prodded by various sides, including Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, to sign the bill to help provide some relief from a rising budget deficit.

But Seneca leaders insisted the tax collections would be illegal and harmful to the Western New York economy.

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Portraits Shockingly Intimate a Half-Century Ago Now Assume a Softer Patina  

Rivers played fruitfully in the gap between high and low. See, for example, "Dutch Masters and Cigars III" (1963), the large-scale painting and collage representing a cigar box decorated with reproductions of Rembrandt's "Syndics of the Drapers' Guild." The insouciant conflation of art and commerce, executed by Rivers with a carelessly skillful touch, speaks volumes about the collapse of hierarchies already happening in American culture and society. . . .

A Camel cigarette package rendered in deep, rich shades of red on a square canvas (from 1962) becomes a hybrid Pop-Modernist icon.

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Jack A. Weil, the Cowboy’s Dresser, Dies at 107 

Until Wednesday, when he died at 107 in Denver, Mr. Weil was still chief executive of the company he founded and, until just before his death, came to work daily. He was regularly called the oldest chief executive still working.

Known as Papa Jack, Mr. Weil said he owed his longevity to quitting smoking at 60 (after starting at 40), drinking at 90 and eating red meat at 100. He did have a medicinal shot of Jack Daniels twice a week .

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Obama campaign issues rebuttal to book's claims 

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama hit back Thursday with a 40-page rebuttal to the best-selling book "The Obama Nation," arguing the author is a fringe bigot peddling rehashed lies.

Jerome Corsi's anti-Obama book, "The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality," claims the Illinois senator is a dangerous, radical candidate for president. The book is a compilation of all the innuendo and false rumors against Obama _ that he was raised a Muslim, attended a radical, black church and secretly has a "black rage" hidden beneath the surface. . . .

In "The Obama Nation" _ the title is a twist on the word abomination _ Corsi catalogs various allegations that have haunted Obama on right-wing blogs and anonymous e-mails.

Corsi suggests, without a shred of proof, that Obama may be using drugs today. Obama has acknowledged using marijuana and cocaine as a teenager but says he quit when he went to college and hasn't used drugs since.

Corsi makes an issue of the fact that, before he quit smoking cigarettes, Obama didn't want it widely known that he smoked. "If Obama takes pains to hide his smoking from us, what else does he take pains to hide?" Corsi asks in the book.

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