Regulations

In 2024, the tax rate will more than double in Alaska’s second-largest city.

The proposal, which was studied by Boris Johnson’s government in 2022, will now be voted on in Parliament.

The bill would remove an requirement that a business must have been operating as of June 3, 2009 in order to allow patrons to smoke cigars or pipes.

The bill would more than triple the federal taxes on premium cigars. Copy. Paste.

Not. So. Fast.

A stripped-down version of the ordinance passed on Thursday, reducing the number of places to light up in the city.

The bill includes Sen. Dick Durbin’s Tobacco Tax Equity Language that would dramatically increase the federal taxes paid on cigars. The weight-based tax would more than triple the federal taxes paid for a robustos and could amount to a nearly 500 percent increase on the federal taxes for a 6 x 60.

Beyond banning indoor smoking in virtually every place outside of a person’s home, the bill would remove a preemption clause, making it easier for local governments to pass even stricter anti-smoking laws.

The effects of last month’s ruling in Cigar Association of America et al. v. United States Food and Drug Administration et al. are beginning to shape.

While there are no major policy changes, these announcement serve as a reminder that the Biden White House supports FDA’s plans to ban the sales of flavored cigars and menthol cigarettes.

Judge Benjamin Souede called the plaintiffs’ arguments flawed and not persuasive in his ruling.