BREAKING NEWS!
Governor Manchin’s proposed budget for FY11 calls for a cut of over 11.5% from the tobacco prevention and education program.
The proposed cut to this program would be $656,318.
More details to come as the Governor and Administrative officials present the budget to the Finance Committees today.
The following tobacco-related bills were introduced today, Wednesday, January 13th, in the West Virginia Legislature:
SB 24 - Forbidding tobacco products’ sale in pharmacies
SB 55 - Granting municipal courts jurisdiction over juveniles violating tobacco use laws
SB 56 - Increasing penalties for underage use or possession of tobacco
HB 2681 - Eliminating the food tax, increasing the tax on nonintoxicating beer, increasing the cigarette tax, increasing the noncigarette tobacco products tax..etc..
HB 2746 - Raising the excise tax on cigarettes and all other tobacco products
HB 2773 - Increasing the monetary penalties for selling tobacco products to minors
HB 2808 - Providing a procedure for removal of county, district or municipal officers
HB 2855 - Permitting the holder of a license to sell nonintoxicating liquors to determine the use or nonuse of tobacco products on the licensees’ premises
HB 2932 - Requiring the approval of board of health rules relating to tobacco use in public or private places
HB 3078 - Reduced Cigarette Ignition Propensity Standard and Fire Prevention Act
All House legislation on this list are carryover bills from the 2009 session. HB 3078, while introduced today, was actually passed in 2009 as a Senate bill.
Bills are listed here for informational purposes only and no endorsement is to be implied. Clear the Air will review bills more in depth as they begin to move. To track these bills yourself visit the West Virginia Legislative website Bill Status page.
Tags: 2009 Session, bills introduced, clean indoor air, tobacco control, tobacco excise tax, West Virigina Legislature
Moments ago the House Political Subdivision Committee passed out HB2932.
This legislation would require the approval of county commissions and, in some cases, city council of local clean indoor air regulations passed by boards of health. This bill is OPPOSED by the American Heart Association, American Lung Association, American Cancer Society and the Coalition for a Tobacco-Free West Virginia as well as other health groups.
The bill now moves to the House Judiciary Committee.
We will post a new action alert listing Judiciary Committee members and contact information later this evening.
The House Political Subdivision Committee ran out of time and did not take up HB2932. The Committee Chair, Tim Manchin, announced at the end of today’s meeting that the committee will meet again on Thursday at 4 P.M. at which time HB2932 will be taken up.
See the post below for the members of the Political Subdivision Comittee and contact them to OPPOSE HB2932.
Today the West Virginia House of Delegates passed out Committee Substitute for HB2360 which prohibits the sale of cigarettes in anything other than its original factory wrapped packaging and only in packs of no fewer than twenty.
This bill previously had been amended by the House Judiciary Committee to remove all tobacco products other than cigarettes. While the bill has merit by addressing the issue of single cigarette sales the exclusion of other tobacco products from coverage under this legislation is disappointing. This is particularly true as the tobacco industry works to establish new products.
The bill now goes to the West Virginia Senate for consideration.
Tags: tobacco control, West Virginia Legislature, youth access
On Monday, February 23rd, the tobacco tax bill which was recommended by an interim committee will be introduced in the West Virginia House of Delegates. The bill will call for a 65 cent per pack increase in the excise tax on cigarettes and a raise from 7 percent of the wholesale price to 14 percent for all other tobacco products.
The proposed legislation will be referred to the Health and Human Resources Committee and then to Finance.
The tax legislation is part of a package of bills recommended by Select Committee D after a year-long study of health care in West Virginia. Passage of the tax is essential to funding other proposed pieces of this package.
More importantly, raising the tobacco excise tax in West Virginia will reduce the number of young people who begin using tobacco products and will serve as a huge incentive for current tobacco users to quit. Research shows an overall 4 percent reduction in tobacco use with every ten percent increase in the price of the product.
Supporters of this bill should contact House members on Monday by telephone urging their support of the tobacco tax legislation (HB2746). You can identify your members and their Capitol phone number by entering your zip code here. Legislators need to hear there is a large amount of grassroots support to provide this important legislation the momentum it will need to be considered.
Please make your phone call today - even if you do not personally reach your legislators leave them a message requesting that they support the tobacco tax bill (HB2746).
Tags: 2009 Session, Action Alert, tobacco tax, West Virginia Legislature
This morning the House Judiciary Committee took up HB2360 and through a tobacco industry supported strike and insert amendment weakened the provisions of the bill.
The bill, as amended, now only prohibits the sale of cigarettes in anything other than its original factory wrapped packaging and only in packs of no fewer than twenty.
Stricken from the legislation was all references to any other tobacco products.
While the bill still has merit by addressing the issue of single cigarette sales the exclusion of other tobacco products from coverage under this legislation is disappointing. This is particularly true as the tobacco industry works to establish new products.
The bill now goes to the full House of Delegates for approval before it moves to the Senate.
Tags: tobacco control, West Virginia Legislature, youth access
On Friday, February 20th at 9:00 the House Judiciary Committee will take up consideration of H.B.2360 - Insuring that tobacco products are not sold in any packaging other than the original.
The purpose of this bill is to insure that tobacco products are not sold in any packaging other than the original factory wrapped package and to insure that cigarettes are not sold individually.
Delegates Patti Eagloski Schoen & Don Perdue
This legislation was introduced by Delegate Schoen and Delegate Perdue and would prohibit the sale of tobacco products in any form other than an original factory wrapped package; require that cigarette packages shall not contain fewer than twenty cigarettes, and; prohibit any person or business entity from selling single cigarettes (”loosies’) or packages of cigarettes that do not display the federally mandated health warnings.
Any person or business found guilty of any of these provision would be charged with a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined $250.
Some of these provisions had been contained in the original Master Settlement Agreement but have since expired.
The Coalition for a Tobacco-Free West Virginia has endorsed this legislation and is urging its passage.
Tags: tobacco control, West Virginia Legislature, youth access
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