Feb. 11--The pushback from aldermen continued Wednesday on Mayor Rahm Emanuel's plan to raise the legal age to buy cigarettes in Chicago to 21 and hike a series of tobacco taxes, as opponents blocked a vote after he tried to jump-start the measure by pledging to crack down on illegal smoke sales.
Ald. Leslie Hairston, 5th, announced that she and a handful of other aldermen would use a procedural move to delay the vote until next month. That will give opponents time to try to sway fellow aldermen to vote no, or to persuade the mayor to agree to further changes.
Afterward, Emanuel was pugnacious in his response to the maneuver, as he often is when championing tobacco tax increases that he frames as attempts to curb youth smoking.
"We will be back," he said. "As I said, they can delay it, but they cannot defer the inevitable, because we will pass this and take another step built on every step Chicago has taken."
Earlier, Emanuel had made changes to the ordinance after the council's Finance Committee balked at the proposal Monday.
With several aldermen complaining it would hurt retailers and further strengthen the market for illegal "loosie" cigarettes that's already a problem in many neighborhoods, the mayor raised fines for illegal cigarette sales. He also specified that the roughly $6 million expected to be raised annually from tax increases on chewing tobacco and cigars will go toward high school orientation classes, smoking cessation programs for young people and enforcement of the rules against selling illegal smokes.
The Finance Committee then passed the plan Wednesday before Hairston and others blocked the full council vote.
Emanuel's proposal calls for a 15-cent tax per "little cigar," raising the cost of a 20-pack of some varieties such as Swisher Sweets from $5.79 to $8.79. It also imposes a 90-cent tax on larger cigars. The mayor also wants a tax of $1.80 per ounce on smokeless tobacco, bumping the price of a 1.2-ounce can from $4.19 to $6.35; and a $6.60-per-ounce tax on roll-your-own tobacco, raising the average price of a "small pouch" from $7.25 to $11.54.
Under his amended proposal, first-time fines for selling illegal cigarettes would be increased to $5,000 from $2,500. Subsequent offenses would see fines of up to $10,000 rather than the current $5,000. People caught selling the illegal cigarettes also could face up to six months in jail.
It's unclear whether the new chewing tobacco tax will withstand a lawsuit, since state law does not allow cities their own taxes on such products. Tanya Triche, vice president and general counsel at the Illinois Retail Merchants Association, said the ordinance is "ripe for a legal challenge."
