From my neck of the woods …

The anti's lost in a major upset … a ballot initiative to quadruple cigarette taxes … was defeated. The present tax is 17 cents. Enough nonsmokers joined with smokers to provide the slim margin to defeat the amendment. It may have been the first time a cigarette tax was defeated on any statewide ballot in a very long time.

Citizens for a Healthy Missouri had spent $4.5 million on the measure as of Oct. 28, campaign reports showed. Missourians Against Unfair Taxes and the Missouri Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association together had spent only $89,000.

Big Health and their business interests, bankrolled the $4.5 million to get it on the ballot … the $300 million generated by the tax, would have all gone directly in their pockets, with smokers picking up the tab. The ACS and ALA also campaigned … with a blizzard of media.

The anti's aren't invincible … they may have won in Florida, but were sent packing in the Heartland.


http://www.ky3.com/newsdetailed.asp?id=3721

[This message has been edited by John L (edited 11-06-2002).]

Congrats on this victory. On this the morning after here in FL it is nice to see parts of the country still are thinking clearly.

quote:

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Originally posted by John L:
From my neck of the woods …

The anti's lost in a major upset … a ballot initiative to quadruple cigarette taxes … was defeated. ........... The anti's aren't invincible … they may have won in Florida, but were sent packing in the Heartland.

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That's great news John!!!

The antis also took a major hit in Delaware. We kicked out a couple of major antis from the State House and at least one anti will most likely lose his leadership position. We did lose one long time supporter because of redistricting and another to retirement. But when all is said and done - We gained major support.

Our side won in Delaware and won big - there will be major changes made to the ban in January and the Governor has absolutely NO chance of getting her proposed 50 cents a pack tax increase.

I'm not going to rule out any increase in the cigarette tax, but it will only come if there are other taxes increased, it will come only after a major fight, and it will be no where near 50 cents.

In an interesting turn of events, the win of Ehrlich over Kennedy-Townsend in Maryland is a major win for smokers in Delaware. Ehrlich is in favor of slot machines in Maryland. That will be a huge blow to Delaware revenues anyway because something like 40% of the patrons at our 3 venues are from Maryland. If Delaware doesn't permit smoking at the casinos and Maryland does....I don't think I need spell it all out!!!!

I'm really upset about what happened in Florida and so it has tempered my glee about what has happened elsewhere.

To all you folks in Florida - you fought a GREAT fight and deserve to be proud of yourselves.

Super news, John! Make sure we have alllllll the information on money wasted by the "health" cartel on this travesty. Let's make sure the IRS is apprised.

As you can see from their web site which is quite extensive, you can do quite a bit when you have 4.5 million bucks to spend. They did not miss an anti trick when advocating for the tax increase. Even encouraging folks send threatening letters to businesses that were in opposition to the tax. And don't forget "for the children" it was front and center, with "Mom's for Proposition A"

Even though the anti's outspent the opposition 50 to 1 … they were still defeated.

I think Missouri is a model how you beat anti's, and it will be analyzed for quite awhile.


http://www.healthymissouri.org



[This message has been edited by John L (edited 11-06-2002).]

This is really GREAT news about the defeat of the tobacco tax in Missouri. This hits the antis right in the pocketbook, which is where it REALLY hurts them, since this is all about money for them. Every nickel they DON'T get is a nickel more for justice and freedom.

"Mom's for Proposition A"....yyyyick!

Sounds like the Heartland Voters are pretty immune to emotional manipulation...downright mentally healthy bunch, if you ask me!