WHERE CAN I STILL SMOKE IN ARIZONA?
This entry was posted on 11/12/2006 4:39 PM and is filed under New Products,TAXES,Industry News.
I have received a lot of calls and fielded a number of questions this past week asking if smoking will still be permitted at the King. The answer is YES! You can still smoke at the King, but some of your other options may be limited soon. As many of you may know, our fellow citizens passed 2 of the 3 anti-tobacco measures on the ballot in the recent election. So what exactly does that mean for me, you may ask? Well, I’ll tell you here, and there’s some good news and some bad news.
The good news is you can still smoke at The Cigar King. In the last year we have spent a lot of time and effort in upgrading the facility to provide our customers with the most comfortable environment in which to enjoy a fine cigar and relax with other lovers of the leaf. We have extended our outdoor patio, and we will be adding heaters to help you stay warm on those cool Arizona winter days and nights. Additionally, we are preparing for the hot summers, too. We have extended the mister system to run all along the building, and we will be adding outdoor air-conditioning as well. These additions should make both the indoor and outdoor smoking lounges the perfect places to relax and light up your favorite stogie!
Now, unfortunately, there is a bit of bad news too. It’s a two parter, and some of this information may get your head spinning or send some proverbial smoke billowing from your ears.
First, beginning May 1st, 2007, there will be no more indoor smoking in restaurants, bars, bowling alleys, sports arenas, and the like. That means no more cigars with or after your steak dinner in the bar at Mastro’s or Morton’s. But, if one of these locations currently has or creates an outdoor patio that has sufficient ventilation and is far enough from the entrance to a non-smoking facility, they may still allow smoking outdoors.
And then there’s part two of the bad news. Effective January 1st, 2007 tobacco taxes on cigars will be increasing from $0.13 per cigar to roughly $0.22 per cigar. It’s a pretty substantial increase, but it could have been worse. Arizona is still a low-tax state when it comes to cigars. For example, the state of California has a 47% tobacco tax on cigars; Illinois has a 26% tax per cigar, and the state of Washington is 120% with a $0.50 per cigar cap. So while none of us are thrilled that tobacco taxes are going up, it could have been worse.
So to recap, you can still smoke at the Cigar King. None of these propositions will affect your right to smoke at the Cigar King. And until May 1st, 2007 you can still smoke at your favorite bar, restaurant, or wherever you were smoking before. Also, tobacco taxes will be going up on cigars effective January 1st, 2007.
So what we have is a little salt and pepper, a little good and bad. Lucky for us that we live here in Arizona where the weather is fair and smoking outdoors isn’t so bad.
Remember - It’s good to be at the King!
