Baltimore leaders, clergy push for budget fix
May 1, 2012
Faith community leaders said they support increasing the sales tax on little cigars and other tobacco products to 70 percent -- doing so would help expand health care coverage. They also support increasing the state income tax rate.... Read more »
Faith Leaders Want Budget Cuts Restored
Lawmakers are expected to return to Annapolis in mid-May to address the budget situation which also threatens 500 state employee jobs.... Read more »
Religious leaders trying to prevent ‘doomsday’ in Maryland
More than 30 religious leaders called on Maryland's political leaders Monday to conduct a special session without further delay, arguing cuts from the so-called "doomsday" budget would hurt the state's low-income residents and vulnerable populations.... Read more »
Top Maryland Faith Leaders Call For Restoring Doomsday Cuts
April 30, 2012
...convene a Special Session to restore the budget cuts and to enact the life-saving tobacco tax increase which they nearly passed during the 2012 regular Session.... Read more »
Momentum for tobacco tax increase builds
March 8, 2012
A push by public health advocates to increase the tax on cigarettes, cigars and smokeless tobacco has gained momentum in Annapolis.... Read more »
Proposal to raise MD cigar tax attacked: Denounced as a business burden
January 20, 2012
The governor’s support gives the tax a stronger chance of ending up in the final budget, though tobacco lobbyists and opposing lawmakers could push for its removal.... Read more »
The ‘other’ tobacco tax
Editorial View: Time for Maryland to do the right thing and tax cigars, snuff and other forms of tobacco at a rate comparable to the tax on cigarettes... Read more »
The Baltimore Sun’s 2012 legislative agenda: Cigar tax
January 11, 2012
According to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene¿s Youth Tobacco Survey, nearly as many teens now smoke cigars as cigarettes. The state should raise taxes on cigars and other tobacco products so they are equivalent to cigarette taxes.... Read more »
Letter to the editor: Cigar tax increase would reduce teen use
Baltimore Sun January 4, 2012 In a recent Baltimore Sun article about our proposed tax increase for cigars and smokeless tobacco designed to reduce teen use of these products (“Group pushing tobacco tax says it’s a popular idea,” Dec. 20), Bill Spann of the cigar industry makes the irrelevant point that teenagers don’t smoke expensive ... Read more »
Group pushing tobacco tax says it’s a popular idea
Two-thirds of Maryland voters support increasing the state’s tobacco tax, according to a new poll from the Maryland Citizens’ Health Initiative, the group that pushed the dime-a-drink tax on alcohol last General Assembly session.... Read more »
