Brothers/Sisters of the Leaf in Pennsylvania - time to take action again...
If you will recall, when Governor Tom Wolf (D) took office in January 2015, he proposed a 40% tax increase on premium cigars in his new state budget (40% of the wholesale cost, which would have dramatically increased cigar prices (see Pennsylvania Governor Proposing Increased Tax Rate on Premium Cigars).
Apparently, last week, Senator Jay Costa (D-43) introduced Senate Bill 13 (SB 13), which revitalizes the proposal to increase the rate of taxation on premium cigars in Pennsylvania - this is the second time this year that this taxation on premium cigars has been proposed. Once again, this will significantly affect both the cigar retailers and consumers alike. SB 13 passed to referred to the Senate Finance Committee. Full details on the bill may be found at the LegiScan website at http://legiscan.com/PA/bill/SB13/2015. If you open the PDF version of the bill from the site, scroll down to Page 10 - Section 8 - Article XII-A Tobacco Products Tax for relevant information on the cigar tax proposed. As always, Cigar Rights of America (CRA) has provided the resources to enable you to contact the members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly and petition against SB 13 by respectfully requesting that they vote "NO" to this bill. Click on this link to submit a pre-written electronic message (which may be edited to add your own text) to the Pennsylvania state representatives immediately.