SENATE DOCKET, NO. 2852        FILED ON: 3/4/2020

SENATE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 2605

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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PRESENTED BY:

Bruce E. Tarr, (BY REQUEST)

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To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General
Court assembled:

The undersigned legislators and/or citizens respectfully petition for the adoption of the accompanying bill:

An Act to reduce the environmental impact of cigarette butts in streams, rivers, and in the ocean by increasing the tax on cigarettes by 100%.

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PETITION OF:

SENATE DOCKET, NO. 2852        FILED ON: 3/4/2020

SENATE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 2605

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the One Hundred and Ninety-First General Court
(2019-2020)

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An Act to reduce the environmental impact of cigarette butts in streams, rivers, and in the ocean by increasing the tax on cigarettes by 100%.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

Whereas, as per Fareed Zakaria of Sunday’s TV program “GPS”, cigarettes are now #1 in negative ocean environmental impact, compared with plastics bags and straws, and,

Whereas cigarette smoking itself is poisonous and burdens health insurance, and,

Whereas there is no evident benefit at all in smoking cigarettes, and,

Whereas cigarette butts are too often disposed of outdoors where they then enter the into the flow of water from gutters, streams and rivers into the ocean where their negative effects are absorbed into both wildlife and into human lives from there, and

Whereas taxation has proven to assist in changing negative behaviors (evidenced in Sweden and Finland with “hard” liquor sales and use).

Therefore, since cigarette smoking poisons both the smokers and  non-smokers in their surroundings, especially children and susceptible adults with asthma, COPD in addition to the effect on wildlife, and ultimately to humans from wildlife, it is imperative that cigarette sales and smoking be eliminated to the highest extent possible, and,

Therefore, one avenue to curb the sales (and thereby the production), use and the disposal of cigarettes would be an increase in tax levied on each pack of cigarettes by 100% each following year to eventually make cigarette smoking untenable for most people, and,

Therefore, the health and environmental impact of cigarette smoking and disposal would be gradually diminished, and,

Therefore, this taxation will positively impact the State of Massachusetts in many ways with health and financial benefits.

Section 1. Section 6 of chapter 64C as appearing in the 2018 official edition is hereby amended by inserting in line 17 before the words, "The commissioner" the following:-"in so much is as allowed within calculation in congruence with federal excise tax of cigarettes, the cigarette excise tax shall increase one hundred percent annually".