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State senators vote to raise cigarette tax

Associated Press file photo

The Florida Senate passed a tobacco tax proposal Thursday that adds $1 to a pack of cigarettes.

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By WILLIAM MARCH

wmarch@tampatrib.com

Published: April 17, 2009

TALLAHASSEE - The Florida Senate passed a tobacco tax proposal Thursday that adds $1 to a pack of cigarettes and would likely eliminate sales of cheaper cigarettes at Indian reservations like those at the Tampa Seminole Smoke Shop.

Tribe members, including children, can have up to five packs a day tax-free under the proposal, but nontribe members would be out of luck.

The tax proposal also adds $1 an ounce to all other tobacco products, a potential threat to Tampa's premium cigar industry. Senate leaders promised that would be added in the final stages of the budget process.

Tampa Sens. Victor Crist, a Republican, and Arthenia Joyner, a Democrat, withdrew an amendment creating the cigar exemption after being reassured that it would be a priority in the Senate's budget negotiations with the state House.

Crist said he accepted the promise after entreaties from Senate leaders.

"They said, 'We need to have that posture for conferencing,'" Crist said. "'Please let us have our bargaining chip.'"

On the Senate floor, Joyner said the cigar industry is "the heart of Ybor City."

"Don't send the cigar industry up in flames; don't burn my constituents," she said.

The state House doesn't favor a tobacco tax increase. Crist's comments suggest that Senate leaders including budget chief JD Alexander, R-Lake Wales, hope to extract other concessions from the House in return for restoring the cigar exemption.

Another Crist amendment preserving sales of reservation cigarettes to the public was hammered on the Senate floor. It died on a voice vote in which Crist appeared to be the only "yes" vote.

Originally, the proposal also made it illegal for non-Indians to own cigarettes sold on Indian reservations, which are less expensive because they don't pay state tax.

The Senate voted down Crist's amendment deleting that provision, but they also replaced the provision with one that taxes tribal cigarettes along with all other cigarettes but provides the tribes with refund coupons.

Each tribe would get coupons for five packs a day for every member.

Reporter William March can be reached at (813) 259-7761.

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