On Friday the North Dakota House of Representatives voted 34-56 to defeat HB 1421, which proposed an increase from 28% to 43.5% of the wholesale price of cigars, pipe tobacco and other tobacco products, as well as an increase on cigarettes, chewing tobacco and snuff. The bill called for an increase on the cigarette tax from $0.44 per pack to $1.54, while the tax on chewing tobacco would have gone from sixty cents per ounce to $2.72 per ounce, and snuff from 16 to 73 cents per ounce. The vote to defeat the bill comes after the House Finance and Taxation Committee that offered a 12-2 do-not-pass recommendation on Wednesday. There is still an active bill in the state senate, SB 2322, that seeks to raise the tax on cigars, pipe tobacco and other tobacco products –chewing tobacco and snuff again excluded–from 28% to 50% of the wholesale price. The tax on chewing tobacco would be increased to $2.10 an ounce and snuff to $0.56 per ounce, while the tax on cigarettes would jump to $2 per pack. That bill is currently slated for a hearing by the Senate Appropriations Committee on Monday, Feb. 16.
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