Bill Text: HI SB2422 | 2012 | Regular Session | Amended

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Tobacco Products; Tax

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)

Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2012-03-20 - (H) Passed Second Reading and referred to the committee(s) on FIN with none voting aye with reservations; none voting no (0) and Chang, Herkes, Nakashima, Pine, Tokioka excused (5). [SB2422 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2012-SB2422-Amended.html

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STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2333

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 2422

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2012

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 2422 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO TOBACCO PRODUCTS,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to impose an excise tax on tobacco products, other than large cigars, in an effort to curtail tobacco use.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health and the Coalition For A Tobacco-Free Hawaii.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Cigar Association of America, Inc., and three individuals.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Tax Foundation of Hawaii and the American Heart Association.

 

     Your Committee finds that tobacco use continues to be a pressing problem in Hawaii and the United States, causing over 400,000 deaths per year.  Illness and death directly related to tobacco consumption costs Hawaii at least $640,000,000 per year.  Your Committee further finds that raising the price of tobacco products through state tax increases will prompt a reduction in tobacco use, especially among adolescents and young adults.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by inserting an effective date of January 1, 2050, to allow for further discussion.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2422, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2422, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,

 

		____________________________ JOSH GREEN, M.D., Chair