Tobacco Tax | Gotham Government Relations and Communications

Gotham Fights for New York Small Businesses

December 4, 2011

A 75% tax on cigar and pipe tobacco has cigar aficionados running for the border and online shops as family-run small businesses close their doors. Making matters worse is that despite the tax hike, New York state is collecting fewer tax dollars on cigars than ever before. Gotham fights for small businesses and this is how we do it:

Watch the video...

Video: Gotham Radio – The Tobacconists are Coming, Walmart, President Obama

February 8, 2011

Hosts Brad Gerstman and David Schwartz talk about fighting for small business in Albany, New York’s Wal-Mart invasion and the misconceptions about President Obama. Watch highlights here or listen to the entire hour.

Watch or listen to Gotham Radio...

Smoked Out: State, Federal Legislation Target New York Tobacco Consumers

June 28, 2010

Dramatic changes are on the horizon for New York tobacco consumers. Federal legislation has not only increased the federal tax on cigarettes, but has limited cigarette distribution. Proposed New York State legislation increases the tax on cigarettes and other tobacco products to an unprecedented level. Governor David Paterson’s emergency legislation proposes to reinstate New York’s regulatory scheme to tax cigarettes sold to non-Indians by Indian retailers on reservation land. A recent New York Court of Appeals decision provides guidance to New York legislators and regulators who may be tasked with crafting these delicate yet powerful regulations.

To find out more, click here...

New York Tobacconists Speak Out Against Increased OTP Tax

June 19, 2010

New York Tobacconists Association gathered to speak out against an increased state OTP tax that would put them out of business and would lose money for the state. Shot at De La Concha in Manhattan by the European Cigar Journal.

Read the full article

Danger Lies In Tobacco Tax

June 16, 2010

Politicians expand tobacco taxes to discourage smoking and to feed their own nicotine-like addiction to public spending. Like so many others, this government action smolders with unintended consequences. Tobacco taxes create a perfect arbitrage opportunity that radical Muslims exploit to collect money for terrorist groups

New York Governor Eyes Emergency Cigarette Tax

June 16, 2010

The New York Post reports this morning that Governor Paterson may include a $1-a-pack tax hike on cigarettes in his next round of emergency spending legislation.

Audio: David Schwartz, Brad Gerstman Support Business Owners Against New Tax

June 9, 2010

Gotham Government Relations founders, David Schwartz and Brad Gerstman joined small business owners in protest over New York’s new tobacco tax. Hear what they had to say:

Hear David, Brad and Shop Owner Scott Bendett...

Cigar Lovers Fumed Over New Tax

June 9, 2010

With a proposal for increased cigarette tax on the table, tobacco enthusiasts in New York are protesting, saying the government is getting too meddlesome and that it would severely hurt businesses.

See Video of Smokers Protesting New Tax...

Proposed NY Tax Claims First Small Business Victim

June 4, 2010

Uptown Cigar Company, of Kingston, New York, is leaving town. After 14 years in its present location, owner Michelle Tuchman has decided to move the company down to Florida. The New York location will close on June 30, 2010, and the operation will begin in Florida on July 1, 2010.

Do New York Businesses Need Any More Hardship?

June 4, 2010

Take a look at what business owners told Newsday about how New York’s proposed tobacco tax increase will destroy small businesses in our state. Many of these shops are struggling, with some seeing a 30 percent drop in sales following last year’s tax increase on non-cigarette tobacco products, from 37 percent to 46 percent. “If we are going to go out of business, they are going to collect zero.”

Read What NY Small Business Owners Have to Say...

How American Cancer Society Uses Your Money

June 2, 2010

I want to point out some of the more nauseating facts about this billion dollar organization that should make everyone’s blood boil – especially those whom have somehow been touched by this insidious disease called cancer.
ACS has been part and parcel of the destruction of wonderful small businesses, including the shutting down of thousands of bodegas over the past decade. It seems like their only success is to lobby for higher tobacco taxes which have put our wonderful New York businesses out of business and have led to an illegal cigarette and cigar market that are making the criminals very rich and honest hardworking New Yorkers very poor and out of business.

← Previous Entries