Stogie Commentary: Obama’s Tobacco Tax Job Killer

Last night, during his State of the Union address, President Obama spent a fair amount of time speaking about how to restore American jobs. He even touted various “targeted” tax cuts that he signed into law.

Obama said in his speech that he would visit Tampa, Florida, to have a townhall on the issue today. I can think of no better place for such an event. Tampa, after all, has been ground zero for the devastation caused by the SCHIP tobacco tax increase.

In a decision that Altadis USA directly attributed to the SCHIP tobacco tax hike, the Hav-A-Tampa factory, which began producing cigars in 1902, made its last cigar and closed its doors in July of last year. The move left around 500 employees without jobs.

One of Obama’s first acts in office was to sign the SCHIP tax hike into law. That bill increased the tax on small cigars to $50 per 1,000 (up from $1.80) and increased the tax on “large” handmade cigars a whopping 750%—from 5 cents to 40 cents per cigar.

Such a massive new tax burden has a real impact, and the 500 jobs lost at the Hav-A-Tampa factory near the site of Obama’s appearance tomorrow are just the most visible example of the many thousands of jobs eliminated by the tax on tobacco users, a group that already pays more than their fair share of taxes.

So today, instead of heading to a sports arena to hold a meeting with politicians and well-connected activists, Obama might want to visit the now-empty Hav-A-Tampa cigar factory and talk to the 500 workers who lost their jobs because of the tax increase on tobacco the president so proudly signed into law.

-Patrick S

photo credit: Telegraph