Posted on 04/03/2006 3:43:00 AM PDT by SheLion
AUGUSTA, Maine --Maine state government could lose $8.8 million due to a ruling favoring the country's largest tobacco companies.
An independent arbiter has agreed with tobacco companies that terms of the 1998 settlement between states and the tobacco companies caused them to lose market share in the United States.
Under the terms of the deal, the tobacco companies can make their case that the $6.5 billion they owe states on April 17 should be reduced by about $1.2 billion. The March 28 finding by the arbiter puts at risk about $8.8 million in Maine.
But before the tobacco companies can reduce this year's payment, they have to show on a state-by-state basis that the terms of the settlement haven't been met by the states. Officials in Maine say the state has met terms of the settlement.
Maine was among the 46 states that agreed in 1998 not to sue cigarette makers for the public health harm caused by their products, in exchange for annual payments of about $6.5 billion.
Maine has received about $448 million from the settlement since 1999 and is due to receive about $50 million this year.
The loss of $8.8 million could create legal and budgetary problems for the state next year because $4.45 million for the Fund for a Healthy Maine, which administers the tobacco settlement money, was included in the state's supplemental budget that was approved last week.
Carol Kelly, director of the Maine Coalition on Smoking or Health, said it's not clear whether the tobacco companies actually intend to withhold the money and, if they do, how the states go about defending themselves.
"No one has actually done this before," Kelly said. "There will be a way to show that Maine is doing everything it's supposed to do. At that point, we get the money back, with interest."
Chuck Dow, a spokesman for the Maine Attorney General's Office, agreed, saying the path forward is unclear and depends on what the tobacco companies do. He said the state will fight vigorously to keep its share of the tobacco money.
I didn't realise that a drug had to be illegal for you to be addicted to it! Smokers are physically addicted to smoking - they are junkies just like people who are addicted to legal drugs like prozac. Because smokers are addicts, the govt. can abuse you financially, relying on your addiction to keep you buying your nicotine fix whatever the price, just as pushers know doubling the price of a rock won't reduce their sales.
I persoanlly don't mind people smoking at all, but you do have to realise that as an addict, you are far more open being abused than a non-addict. A non-addict would simply give up when the price went up, but a nicotine junkie can't do that very easily.
How about we don't "give it up" because we enjoy it. Cigarettes being a legal commodity and all. I love my cigarettes and coffee. I don't drink. What do you want from us?
And btw, what is YOUR relaxation of choice? Drugs or booze??!!
I have friends addicted to PEPSI! So what?
Typical liberal shortsightedness.
Sue a manufacturer of a legal product for big bucks.
Tax the daylights out of it.
Prohibit it's use wherever it can.
Complain because the settlement money is not coming in.
I don't want anything from you, I merely observe that the reason your 'choice' of cigarettes is taxed so highly is because of their addictive nature. If they were simply a take it or leave it commodity, tax would be lower. Because most smokers are addicted to tobacco, they can be taxed much higher before any revenue loss occurs for the govt.
As for my relaxation of choice I neither drink, nor smoke nor imbibe drugs, but I believe it is everyones individual right to make that choice.
I persoanlly don't mind people smoking at all, but you do have to realise that as an addict, you are far more open being abused than a non-addict.
"They got you over a barrel."
Right on the mark, Mears. I'm rolling my own since 2000 and saving over $300 a month. Always a way to keep our money in our pockets and it's legal, too.
The gluttons in the state house can kiss my arse!
I dopnt smoke so it doesnt matter much to me, but I can recognise theft when I see it and the states are a pack of thieving bastids. Stealing money in taxes and doubling up by suing tobacco companies. When cigarettes are no longer profitable to state wwhat will they start taxing then? You can bet the farm they will find something even if its chewing gum.
"Maine has been just the bestest Nazis ever!"
I agree with you 100%. Smokers are no worse than people addicted to Coca Cola or coffee. Maybe the states will tax coca-cola next.
I never smoked in my life, but this crap they shoot about smokers costing states money for cancer treatment is a boatload. It is probably cheaper to treat cancer than keep nursing homes open for those who dont get lung cancer.
That's what King George thought too, Lord Smugly.
It's a smoke screen! The lawmakers are blaming obese and smoking Americans for rising health care cost. The liars are blaming us to cover up the fact that rising health care is because we have to treat all those illegal aliens.
I'm sick of their lies!!!
"The lawmakers are blaming obese and smoking Americans for rising health care cost"
With all the talk of "obese children" and "Americans are becoming more overweight", mickie d's and the soda manufacturers better watch out. The gov's already setting -up their next cash-cow, for sure.
And LEGAL immigrants as well as our own who abuse their state-sponsored health care.
The money spent by the state on people who go to emergency rooms for "colds" and other non-emergency reasons is phenomenol and in many hospitals accounts for more than 50% of the people under ER care.
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