Tobacco lovers -- brace yourselves. A new tax on cigars, chewing tobacco and related products -- except cigarettes -- could be coming from City Hall.
Philadelphia City Council will weigh that option as a potential new revenue source.
Pennsylvania is the only state in the nation that doesn't already tax smokeless tobacco. Chewing tobacco and pipe tobacco would be taxed at 36¢ per ounce, which is about the size of one can. Individual cigars would be taxed at more than 3.5¢ per ounce.
The sponsor, Democratic councilman Daryl Clark, says it would be levied on retailers as part of the business tax and raise up to $6 million every a year...
The council and Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter are trying to close a $150 million budget gap. Some believe Mayor Nutter's twin proposals for a $300 annual trash collection fee and a 2¢ per ounce tax on sugary beverages are on life supports at best. The council is taking hard look at rearranging the business tax, upping the gross receipt rate and lowering the net income rate. All that talk has the Chamber of Commerce crowd crying foul.
The absolute deadline for passing a new, balanced budget for Philadelphia is the end of June. This tight budget season is generating a wider variety of ideas than ever, and the friction over taxes is nothing new at all.
