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JENNIFER LIBERTOA House panel's tie vote deals a blow to an effort to make minor manufacturers share the big tobacco companies' settlement pain.
TALLAHASSEE - A tax on makers of offbrand cigarettes appears doomed for this legislative session.
After tense debate that included testimony from two major tobacco executives, the House Committee on Business Regulation failed Wednesday to approve the measure on a 19-19 vote.
The bill, which would have required all but five of the nation's largest cigarettemakers to pay a tax of 50 cents a pack, still could be resurrected. But that would be unusual now that the committee has acted and would require the support of House leaders.
The bill was the plan of large tobacco companies, which pay hundreds of millions of dollars a year under the state's historic 1997 settlement with tobaccomakers. The offbrand cigarettemakers pay nothing.
With their market share eroded in recent years by discount brands, the large companies have pushed the idea of taxing the smaller companies as a way to restore the competitive balance in the market.
"If you can convince me that cigarettes produced by nonsettling manufacturers cause less cancer than cigarettes produced by the other manufacturers, then you should vote no against this bill," said bill sponsor Rep. Frank Farkas, R-St. Petersburg.
Senate President Jim King still supports the measure and will await the House's next move.
"We've just got to sit back and see what happens," said King, who announced the bill's death on the Senate floor as his second-in-command, Republican Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla of Miami, grinned.
Diaz de la Portilla opposes the measure because a small cigarettemaker that would pay the tax is in his district.
"Sen. Diaz de la Portilla has assured me from the very beginning that he was having no active part in this particular debate or this particular bill," King said. "I noticed that he always said that with his hands behind him and his fingers crossed."
Liggett Group chief executive Bennett Lebow, who broke ranks with Big Tobacco and first negotiated a settlement with Florida and other states, told House committee members the tax would even the playing field in Florida.
Lebow noted that his company makes tobacco payments in other states, though nothing to Florida.
Critics, including Dosal Tobacco of Miami and Commonwealth Brands, said the legislation was aimed at improving Liggett's market share against other discount cigarettemakers.
A similar bill that passed in Minnesota has caused Commonwealth to lose market share, said Spencer Coates, chairman of Commonwealth Brands.
"Our market share has gone down 60 percent in Minnesota, and guess who's getting our market share? Liggett," Coates said at the meeting.
Liggett is joined by Lorillard and Brown & Williamson, who also support the tax. The two biggest tobacco companies, R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris, are neutral.
Tampa Bay area representatives on the Business Regulation Committee voting for the bill were Farkas; Charles Dean, R-Inverness; Bob Henriquez, D-Tampa; Arthenia Joyner, D-Tampa; and Ken Littlefield, R-Wesley Chapel. Voting against the bill were Kevin Ambler, R-Lutz; Charlie Justice, D-St. Petersburg; and Ron Reagan, R-Bradenton.
- Times researcher Deidre Morrow and staff writer Joni James contributed to this report.