A cigar shop owner in Massachusetts is leading the charge to repeal the state’s 30% tobacco tax via a pair of petitions that have been filed with the state attorney general’s office in hopes of getting on the 2016 ballot. Geoffrey Yalenzenian of Brennan’s Smoke Shop, which has six locations in the state, has filed petitions 15-29 and 15-30, both of which are titled An Act to Eliminate Double Taxation on the Sale of Tobacco Products, though contain two sets of wording to achieve the same result. Both petitions, along with 33 others filed before Wednesday’s deadline, now go before Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey to determine whether they are in line with requirements in the state constitution. If they do, the Attorney General will certify them and file them with the Secretary of State, and a minimum of 64,750 signatures will be required to be gathered and filed with local election officials by late November and then with the Secretary of State by the first Wednesday in December. Should that happen, it will be sent to the legislature in January 2016 where it will begin that process, while more signatures can be gathered through early July in an attempt to get them ...
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