The State : Tobacco Tax Change Urged

After being told that cigar smokers are placing their orders through the mail to escape California’s heavy new tax on tobacco products, the chairman of the Joint Legislative Budget Committee said he wants the State Board of Equalization to come up with “a fairer” tax. Sen. William Campbell (R-Hacienda Heights) said he thinks the board, in interpreting Proposition 99, the tobacco tax initiative approved by voters last November, has set the tax on selected tobacco products so high that it will create a black market and drive California tobacco shop owners out of business. He said he will draft a legislative resolution asking the tax agency to reduce the new levy.