Tuesday, April 14 2009
By Keith Morelli (
Tampa Bay Online)
TAMPA - Steeped in smoky tradition, Tampa's cigar makers and retailers are fuming over a proposal to increase the state's tobacco tax, saying the added cost could snuff out the business they have built up in the past 120 years.
The Florida Senate has proposed a bill that would increase taxes on cigarettes and impose what could be the first tax on cigars made and sold in the state. For Tampa cigar rollers, that could put a damper on an industry that is ingrained in the fabric of the Bay area.
Tampa was a tiny village in the late 19th century when the cigar makers, including Vicente Martinez Ybor, came to town with a notion to build a cigar factory. Tampa's population boomed around the turn of the century, with most of the growth attributed to the making and selling of cigars.
Cigar makers rally to head off tax continues...
