I need to get serious here for a moment. (Well as serious as a sarcastic bastard can get). As many of you know, the SCHIP tax (State Children’s Health Insurance Program). Now mind you I am not above healthcare reform. As a country we are grossly behind the curve, and we are the only industrialized nation where a citizen can go bankrupt due to medical bills. I will actually go into detail the importance of all cigar smokers (customers & industry) joining together to keep the item of our enjoyment, the glorious cigar from being an easy political target in the near future. Today I want to talk about what is going on in Florida. Last night I received a message from Darlene at Tampa Sweethearts (http://www.tampasweetheart.com/) informing me of a new bill that is picking up steam in the Florida Senate. They already have their pound of flesh. As a consumer, every cigar that we buy will be at an additional $0.40 increase minimum (an increase of 700%), but now the State is presenting another tax that would be at a rate of $1.00 a ounce! Yep now your favorite cigar may be increased to almost $2.00 more a stick. For Joe smokers like us where we pay around $6.00 or so a cigar, we are looking at a 33% increase on our enjoyment. I don’t know about you, but I have not received a 33% pay raise in the last few years.

This new proposed tax can be a detriment to the Florida Cigar industry. These taxes can lead to production slowdowns, layoffs, or even complete shutdowns. Florida residents, please contact your Senator to state your outrage over this additional tax proposal.

I need to point out an ignorant quote from Paul Hull, spokesmen from the American Cancer Society in Florida:

“For the most part, connoisseurs of cigars tend to be in a higher socio-economic class anyway,” he said. “It’s hard to imagine this will have an effect on them.” Associated Press April 1, 2009

Really? We are all from a higher economic class? That is a pretty ignorant statement. As most educated people know when you make generalized statements against a population that just leads to discrimination. (Wait a minute, as cigar smokers, our rights are in trouble!) I know as I try to stay ahead of my bills I think to myself, “Gee, I am a little worried here, but wait, it’s going to be ok, I smoke cigars, I must be from a higher socio-economic class, I won’t be affected by this new tax!”

If you read this site please go to Cigar Rights of America’s page at http://www.cigarrights.org. The Joes here have all joined, and we hope you do as well. There is a lot of work to be done to protect smokers rights, and it is not going to happen by being upset, and letting these taxes compound. As a cigar smoker we need to stand up for our rights.