Cook County Update
Cigarette tax hike may leave trail of smoke to NW Indiana
March 1, 2006
BY STEVE PATTERSON Staff Reporter
Smokers already have started the rush out of Cook County.
A county cigarette tax kicks in today, adding $1 to the price of a pack and $10 more on a carton of smokes, which is welcome news to retailers in neighboring counties.
"We already have new customers coming in," said John Bhatt, manager at Boulevard Discount in Whiting, Ind.
He's expecting more today.
Bhatt is selling a pack of Marlboros for $3.38, while the same 20 cigarettes will cost smokers $7.29 at Walgreens in the Loop today.
Even at a DuPage County White Hen, they're going for $4.45.
The Smoke Shop in Dyer, Ind., is selling GPC for $2.69 a pack, while they'll cost $6.29 in Cook County.
"When it was $4 more [a carton], we didn't see too much," Bhatt said. "But now it will be $10 more -- I mean, we're already $30 cheaper [a carton], now we'll be $40, so we'll see some movement."
County hoping for millions more
While there might be a rush to get cigarettes at half price or better, Cook County officials still expect local smokers to pony up, no matter the cost -- bringing in millions.
County revenue director Barbara Bruno said cigarette taxes brought in about $157 million last year -- with the new tax expected to generate $70 million more.
A county task force, including sheriff's officers, will hit warehouses and other cigarette inventories, slapping each pack with an updated stamp and ordering owners to sign affidavits swearing to their entire stock.
But officials also acknowledge the rush expected for out-of-county cigarettes, as well as a group who will now quit, slightly driving down anticipated revenues.
An incentive to quit
Joel Africk, of the American Lung Association of Metropolitan Chicago, said for every 10 percent increase in a pack of cigarettes, about 6 percent of young smokers quit along with 2 percent of adults.
He says quitting "is a tough road," but recommends smokers gradually stop to ensure success.
He pointed to resources such as the $12 million state-funded Illinois Tobacco Quit Line and other cessation programs for help.
"One of the best things to motivate people to quit is to increase the price," said Dr. Robin Mermelstein, deputy director of the Institute for Health Research at the University of Illinois-Chicago.
"Many times, smokers think about quitting, but an increased price is very concrete and hits them right away. It's often that one thing that pushes them to say it's time to be more serious about my efforts to quit."
spatterson@suntimes.com
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Stroger, John H. (District 4)
President |
dorr@cookcountygov.com
Phone: (312) 603-6400
Fax: (312) 603-4397
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| Butler, Jerry "Iceman" (District 3) |
dorr@cookcountygov.com
Phone: (312) 603-6391
Fax: (312) 603-5671
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| Claypool, Forrest (District 12) |
dorr@cookcountygov.com
Phone: (312) 603-6380
Fax: (312) 603-1265
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| Collins, Earlean (District 1) |
dorr@cookcountygov.com
Phone: (312) 603-4566
Fax: (312) 603-3696
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| Daley, John P. (District 11) |
dorr@cookcountygov.com
Phone: (312) 603-4400
Fax: (312) 603-6688
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| Gorman, Elizabeth Ann Doody (District 17) |
eadgorman@cookcountygov.com
Phone: (312) 603-4215
Fax: (312) 603-2014
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| Goslin, Gregg (District 14) |
commissionergoslin@cookcountygov.com
Phone: (312) 603-4932
Fax: (312) 603-3686
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| Hansen, Carl R. (District 15) |
dorr@cookcountygov.com
Phone: (312) 603-6388
Fax: (312) 603-4678
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| Maldonado, Roberto (District 8) |
rmaldonado@cookcountygov.com
Phone: (312) 603-6386
Fax: (312) 443-9531
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| Moreno, Joseph Mario (District 7) |
dorr@cookcountygov.com
Phone: (312) 603-5443
Fax: (312) 603-3759
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| Murphy, Joan Patricia (District 6) |
jmurphy@cookcountygov.com
Phone: (312) 603-4216
Fax: (312) 603-3693
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| Peraica, Anthony J. (District 16) |
Peraicalaw@aol.com
Phone: (312) 603-6384
Fax: (312) 603-4744
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| Quigley, Mike (District 10) |
CommQuigley@aol.com
Phone: (312) 603-4210
Fax: (312) 603-3695
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| Silvestri, Peter N. (District 9) |
dorr@cookcountygov.com
Phone: (312) 603-4393
Fax: (312) 443-1154
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| Sims, Deborah (District 5) |
dorr@cookcountygov.com
Phone: (312) 603-6381
Fax: (312) 603-4678
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| Steele, Bobbie L. (District 2) |
dorr@cookcountygov.com
Phone: (312) 603-3019
Fax: (312) 603-4055
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| Suffredin, Larry (District 13) |
lsuffredin@cookcountygov.com
Phone: (312) 603-6383
Fax: (312) 603-3622
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"Big brother" and "1984" have arrived!
If authorities can't control the populace through public approval, the new Police States of Chicago and Cook County will do it through force, punishment, incarceration, fines and threats. We have returned to the 1920's. I'm glad I don't live in or near the City because I don't think I want to see the changes in 2006 on a daily basis. I'll still travel into Chicago to visit when necessary, but only to attempt to help other smokers. I will never spend another penny in a Chicago restaurant.
Garnet Dawn
The Smoker's Club, Inc.
Midwest Regional Director
The United Pro Choice Smokers Rights Newsletter - http://www.smokersclubinc.com
Illinois Smokers Rights - http://www.illinoissmokersrights.com/
mailto:garnetdawn@comcast.net - Respect Freedom of Choice!
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A pain in the butts: Smokers pay even more
February 10, 2006
ABDON M. PALLASCH
Enjoy those $6.59 cigarette packs for the next 19 days. Starting March 1, they'll cost $7.59.
By a 10-7 vote, Cook County Board members voted Thursday to double the county tax on a pack of cigarettes from $1 to $2.
A pack of Marlboro Lights that cost $6.59 at a downtown Walgreens Thursday will be $7.59 next month. The same pack costs $4.45 at a White Hen in the DuPage County city of Elmhurst, and it costs $3.76 at a Hammond, Ind., 7-Eleven.
Commissioners voting against the tax hike said shoppers will increasingly hop borders, hurting Cook County businesses.
With the hike, Chicago will have the highest cigarette taxes in the nation.
The cigarette tax increase helped plug a major gap in the county's $3.1 billion election-year spending plan, which Commissioner Mike Quigley described as a "smoke and mirrors budget."
The "smoke" refers to the cigarette increase, which will fill an expected $70 million cut in federal health care funding. The "mirrors" refers to the board's decision to adopt $8 million in rosier revenue projections from the county treasurer and clerk of the court.
Even the board's finance chairman, John Daley, said he didn't like re-jiggering the revenue estimates, but that it was the only realistic way to fund the 250 extra Cook County Jail guards a federal judge has ordered the county to hire.
"I am very concerned about adjusting revenues, but, as has been said, it is the only thing that's going to pass," Daley said. "It may come back to haunt us."
STATE-SIZED NUMBERS
At $3.1 billion, Cook County's budget could almost run a state. Montana has a total budget of $3.46 billion for 2006, including federal funds. Wyoming, meanwhile, has a general fund of $3.5 billion and a total budget of $7.3 billion. Alaska's total 2006 budget is $7.2 billion.
Illinois' total 2006 budget is $54.4 billion, while Chicago's is $5.2 billion.
County Board President John Stroger's critics on the board scored a few minor victories, passing an amendment to dedicate all $70 million of the extra cigarette-tax money to health care and adding $200,000 in health care services for suburban residents.
Commissioner Forrest Claypool, who is running against Stroger in the March Democratic primary, diverted $333,000 to an agency that counsels abused children.
The board had earlier shot down Stroger's trial balloons about property or other tax hikes.
But critics failed to force any cuts in county bureaucracy.
'I have the power of veto'
Quigley and Claypool tried to pass an amendment forcing Stroger to cut duplicate county hospital jobs -- which they claim are packed with Stroger's political loyalists -- and use the savings to hire nurses and other front-line health care workers.
The irony, Quigley noted, was that the board passed a similar measure the year before.
"We passed this last year and the president chose not to implement the order," Quigley said. "What do we have to do? Say this time 'We really, really mean it?'"
"You seem to not want to recognize that during this term, I'm still the president," Stroger shot back. "This does come under the prerogative of the president."
"I'm just curious," Quigley said. "You're saying you don't have to do what we tell you to do? If you think it's 'wrong,' you don't have to do what we pass?"
Stroger said, "No, I am going to do what I think I have to do ... there are things that the board may do that I don't have to do. I have the power of veto."
"You didn't veto this," Quigley said, holding up the previous year's budget requiring Stroger to trim hospital bureaucracy by 30 percent.
"Stop coming across with all these crazy ideas," Stroger told Quigley, a Claypool ally.
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New Year To Bring New Laws Affecting Smokers
December 30, 2005
CHICAGO -- The new year is shaping up to be a tough one for Chicago's smokers thanks to the city, with the second consecutive increase in the city's cigarette tax and a new stringent smoking ban set to go into effect next month.
One year after tripling the city's cigarette tax from 16 cents per pack to 48 cents per pack, the city will raise cigarette taxes again on Jan. 1, 2006, this time to 68 cents per pack, to help balance the city's $5.24 billion budget for 2006. The cigarette tax increase was projected to generate an additional $9 million in annual revenue for the city.
Meanwhile, Cook County Board President John H. Stroger Jr. (D- 4th) has proposed doubling the county's cigarette tax from $1 per pack to $2 per pack to help balance the county's $3.1 billion budget for 2006.
The county board has yet to vote on Stroger's budget proposal but earlier this year rejected a plan by Stroger to increase the county's hotel and restaurant taxes to balance the county's 2005 budget.
About two weeks after the city's cigarette tax increase goes into effect, starting on Jan. 16, 2006, smokers will have to snuff their cigarettes, cigars or pipes before entering most public places in the city, including many restaurants.
A sweeping smoking ban that includes virtually all indoor public places, from train stations to convention halls to condominium and apartment building lobbies and hallways. Even taxicabs, limousines and city-owned vehicles are included in the ban.
And smokers won't always be able to get their fix by simply going outside. The ban also requires smokers to stay at least 15 feet away from the entrance of any building where smoking is banned and bans smoking at outdoor train platforms.
But under terms of a compromise that took aldermen months to hammer out, smoking will still be allowed in free-standing taverns and some restaurants with bars until July 1, 2008.
To qualify for the 30-month wait for the ban to take effect, at least 65 percent of the establishment's gross revenues would have to come from liquor sales. If less than 65 percent of a restaurant's revenue comes from liquor sales, the business would not qualify as a bar and would have to be smoke-free starting Jan. 16, 2006.
Any individual who smokes in an area where smoking is banned by the ordinance would be subject to a maximum fine of $100. Anyone who owns, operates or manages a public place and fails to comply with the ban would be subject to a maximum fine of $100 for the first offense. The fine for the second offense within a year of the first offense would be $500 and $2,500 for each subsequent offense within one year of the first.
Also, on the third and subsequent offenses, a business owner would be subject to a 60-day suspension our outright revocation of his or her business licenses for the premises.
Meanwhile, Cook County Commissioner Mike Quigley (D-10th) and four other commissioners have sponsored a county ordinance aimed at banning smoking in all public places in the county.
Quigley announced his plans to introduce the ordinance on Dec. 6, saying it would apply to unincorporated Cook County, though he added that he hoped it could also be enforced in suburban municipalities with home rule power.
"Our jurisdiction spans the county on a lot of issues," he said at the time. He admitted at the time that there were legal questions about whether the smoking ban could apply in all of the suburbs in the county, but said the county enforced laws in suburban municipalities frequently.
The county ban would carry the same fines as the city ban.
Although the cigarette tax is the only city tax or fee being increased in 2006, the city will expand its use of cameras to issue tickets for running red lights and finding parking scofflaws who qualify for a Denver boot.
A total of 30 city intersections were set to be equipped with cameras that record the license plate number of any car caught running a red light by the end of 2005. The 2006 city budget authorizes camera systems for another 20 intersections.
When the cameras catch a car running a red light, the owner -- not necessarily the person driving at the time -- is mailed a $90 fine. The fine can be challenged if the camera recorded the wrong license plate number, if the car was stolen at the time, if the driver was part of a funeral procession, or if the driver was getting out of the way of an emergency vehicle. Emergency vehicles are exempt from the violations.
Expanded use of red light cameras is expected to generate an additional $2 million in annual revenue. Through October, the city had collected $4.3 million in revenue from red light cameras in 2005.
The Department of Revenue will also outfit approximately 20 vehicles with cameras to record the license plate numbers of vehicles parked on the street and compare the numbers to the city's list of vehicles that have three or more overdue parking tickets and that are, therefore, eligible to be booted.
The systems will end the need for parking enforcement aides to check license plates manually against the city's boot list. The program is also expected to generate an additional $2.5 million in annual revenue for the city and to free up 21 parking enforcement aides for other duty.
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Smoking ban proposed
Thursday, December 22, 2005
By Jonathan Lipman
A proposal to ban smoking indoors in public places throughout Cook County was formally introduced and sent to committee Wednesday.
Commissioner Mike Quigley (D-Chicago) announced the proposal last week. It would affect any suburb without its own smoking ban in place, and covers nearly all public places, including bars and restaurants.
County Board President John Stroger said he wanted to explore the proposal but would not "pre-judge" whether he will support it. But he said it was "a good idea" and repeated his instructions to public health officials to work with Quigley on researching a ban's effects.
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39% live in areas limiting smoking
By Wendy Koch, USA TODAY 12/28/05
Six states enacted indoor smoking bans in 2005, more than in any previous year, as public sentiment appears increasingly anti-tobacco.
Thirty-nine percent of Americans are covered by statewide or local laws limiting smoking, according to Americans for Non-smokers' Rights. In 1985, there were fewer than 200 such state and local laws in the USA. Today, there are more than 2,000. Of those, 118 state or local governments ban all smoking in restaurants, bars and other workplaces.
It's all part of a growing sentiment for a smoke-free environment at work, in public places, even outdoors.
The toughest law came this month in Washington state, which banned smoking inside all public facilities and workplaces and outside within 25 feet of doors, windows and vents. Vermont went all the way, extending a ban in restaurants to bars and other workplaces. Rhode Island enacted a comprehensive ban on smoking in all three places, too. Montana did the same but gave bars until 2009 to comply.
North Dakota banned smoking in workplaces. Georgia banned it in all places without special ventilation or where people under 18 are served or work.
Cities and counties joined the ban bandwagon, too. At least 159 cities - including Chicago, Minneapolis, Birmingham, Louisville and Indianapolis - passed some kind of smoking restriction. Of those, 23 covered all workplaces. In the nation's capital this month, the District of Columbia Council voted 12-1 for a comprehensive smoke-free law, but final action is unlikely until next year.
"The social norms are changing. It's no longer OK to blow smoke in someone's face," says Annie Tegen, spokeswoman for Americans For Non-smokers' Rights. "Public support for these laws is growing across the nation as people become more aware of the dangers of secondhand smoke."
"We're approaching or hitting the tipping point," says Paul Billings, vice president for national policy of the American Lung Association. "The dire consequences of doom and gloom have proven false." He cites studies showing the hospitality industry in New York City and other places strong despite bans.
"The battlefield has changed," says Tom Foulkes, vice president for state relations at the National Restaurant Association. He says opponents are focusing more on fighting local restrictions, and not all state and local affiliates oppose smoke-free laws.
Philip Morris USA, the nation's largest cigarette company, decided this year to stop opposing smoke-free laws except where the company owns a local business directly affected, spokesman Bill Phelps says.
Twelve states have full bans on indoor workplace smoking, including California, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts and New York.
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