Senate to Vote on Bill Targeting Roll-Your-Own Tobacco

A state Senate committee has approved a proposal to raise taxes on cigarettes from “roll-your-own” tobacco shops. Right now raw tobacco is taxed less than cigarettes, and shop owners worry such a measure could put them out of business.

Some smokers save money on cigarette taxes by buying cheaper pipe tobacco and using a machine in the shop to roll their own. Now state lawmakers have a proposal to tax using such a machine. Backers argue rolling your own is like buying cigarettes, and should be taxed like it.

Not so, says tobacco lobbyist Dan Haskell.

“They buy raw materials and they make it into something. We just happen to have the machine that they prefer to use, and if we’re gone, all they’re going to do is go home and roll it at home themselves – and the state just ends up losing a couple of million dollars through the process.”

The Senate Finance Committee approved the measure Tuesday; the House Finance Subcommittee is set to pick it up Wednesday.