PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER Editorial: …In addition to a city tobacco tax, Harrisburg should impose taxes on chewing tobacco and all cigars, as most states have done for years.
Along with ramped-up efforts to price more smokers out of the market, the push to ban smoking indoors – led by Philadelphia before the commonwealth followed suit – has discouraged lighting up. But more needs to be done.
In New York and elsewhere, such bans have contributed to substantial drops in smoking rates. Those healthy trends might accelerate here if state lawmakers and Gov. Corbett finally agree to close loopholes in the state’s clean indoor air law. The exemptions expose workers and patrons alike to dangerous secondhand smoke in corner bars, private clubs, and, most notably, the state’s casinos. The legislature should pass the more inclusive smoking ban proposed by State Sen. Stewart Greenleaf (R., Montgomery) and State Rep. Mario Scavello (R., Monroe)… (more)
