Bill would standardize state cigarette tax

A bill filed in the Legislature Wednesday would erase the state’s hodgepodge system of taxing cigarettes and instead impose a standard $2 surcharge on each pack sold in Florida.

It would also end the practice of allowing manufacturers to give away free sample packs of cigarettes.

The legislation (HB 335), brought by Democratic state Rep. Richard Stark of Weston, says it aims to make “the tax on cigarettes … uniform throughout the state.”

Now, cigarettes are taxed a variety of ways, including by weight, by quantity and by size.

The $2 surcharge would apply to the usual package of 20 cigarettes. An additional surcharge of 4.2 cents per cigarette applies to all other packages.

The bill also tacks on an “excise or privilege tax” of 33.9 cents per pack of 20 and an additional tax of 1.41 cents per cigarette on every other kind of pack.

As before, a portion of the tax money collected will continue to be “reserved for research of tobacco-related or cancer-related illnesses,” the bill says.