Spano has lobbying contract with tobacco company
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- April
- 2
  Among the flock of lobbyists hired by tobacco companies trying to block a plan to raise the cigarette tax is former state senator Nicholas Spano of Yonkers, according to an agreement he signed with Reynolds American Inc. last December.
Spano signed up for a year’s worth of lobbying for $4,500 a month, or a total of $54,000 for the year, according to a memo sent from the tobacco company to Spano.
Spano, a Republican who served in the Senate from 1987 until 2006 when he was narrowly defeated by Democrat Andrea Stewart Cousins, is considering whether to try to take his seat back this year.
Tobacco lobbyists have been working furiously this week to try to beat back a plan to raise the tax on a pack of cigarettes by $1.25 a pack to a total of $2.75. Propoponents of the idea say it will raise as much as $500 million a year for the state and also discourage people from smoking.
On the other side, the tobacco lobbyists have been arguing that raising the tax will merely drive more people to buy untaxed”bootleg’’ cigarettes either on-line or in stores on Indian reservations.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008 at 4:01 pm by Jay Gallagher.
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Well, here’s someone who’s not planning on running for office anytime soon.
Who is Nick going to lobby? He’s not allowed to lobby the Legislature until January 2009, at least according to Public Officers Law section 73(8)(a)(iii), which reads:
No person who has served as a member of the legislature shall within a period of two years after the termination of such service receive compensation for any services on behalf of any person, firm, corporation or association to promote or oppose, directly or indirectly, the passage of bills or resolutions by either house of the legislature.
Based on that law, Nick Spano will have to be as mute as a cigar store Indian for the immediate future. That could be a blessing. But is Nick trying to circumvent the law?
Spano is ridiculous but is right about the law. I hate smoking but smokers (and tobacco companies) have been unfairly targeted by politicians. Basically, it is a bully targeting a wimp. A politician who can’t find a worthy cause to tax or doesn’t want to, can always pick on “big tobacco”. What’s next? We start taxing junk food at obscene rates to limit obesity. I personally would like obese people to have to get two seats on an air plane but that is considered inhumane. Guess what, so is taxing a product like crazy that people are addicted to.
As Ed McMahon used to say to Carson, “You are correct, sir.” We have no dearth of sanctimonious baby-sitters in our midst. Every day that our national and local legislators meet, another small chunk of our nation’s freedom is erased. Sadly, we are surrounded by people who have been educated beyond their intelligence. God, in his wisdom, gave us only ten commandments. These “officials” have added volumes, and they have forgotten that one of the simple ten is “Thou Shalt Not Steal.”
Anybody got a light?
Diogenes has one. He’s still searching. It’s all Greek to me.
Nothing at all wrong with Nick’s business, and lobbying is a fair game. It’s a free country. The nanny state wants to abolish smoking.
I remember when Luther Terry was Surgeon General, under LBJ, and announced in 1965 that—surprise!!—cigs were possibly harmful to us. LBJ immediately stopped smoking (he did two packs a day of Winstons)—and for the next three years he told his chief aide, Joseph Califano, that he couldn’t wait to leave the Oval Office and return to Austin and start smoking again. (Califano did three packs a day, working for LBJ. Go figure, lol.)
Nick: I need a carton of Benson & Hedges Menthols. Hope you’re working for Philip Morris.
;>
(Sources: Califano, “The Triumph and Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson,” S&S, 1991; my memory)
HEY WHAT THEY ARE TRYING TO DO TO SMOKERS IS CRAZY! I’M NOT A SMOKER BUT IFF I WAS I WOULD BE MAD. THEY ARE SINGALING OUT ONE GROUP AND MAKING THEM PAY. TAX THE LIQUOR – THAT’S BAD FOR YOU – START TAXING CANDY – THAT NOT GREAT FOR YOU. PUT A BIGGER TAX ON FAST FOOD. MAYBE PEOPLE WILL STOP EATING IT. AFTER ALL IT’S BAD FOR YOU RIGHT? THIS IS SO STUPID!
Lou is making the slippery slope argument. It’s a true argument. Very valid.
The nannies like Bloomberg and his buddies in Albany and the Westchester Legislature want to contol everyone’s lives. There are already attempts being made to tax junk food. Trans fats bans, and even levels of trans fats, are being ordered to be printed on menus.
Liquor is taxed high. Bicyle helmets are law in many places. Cigarettes are taxed very high. Now Maine is thinking about making it illegal for someone to smoke if kids are in a car. Didn’t Rockland try that too? It sounds unconstitutional.
This started with smoking sections in restaurants. Then it was smoking only in the bar areas. Now, no smoking in bars. It never stops. It happens to be cigarettes this time, but it is a lot more than that overall.
It is crazy. It is out of control. And it is amazing that these same liberals are very liberal when it comes to what THEY want, including partial-birth abortion, but are very controlling when it comes to others’ freedoms. The hypocrisy is obvious.
The cigarette taxes will just create more of a black market. Smokers will get around those increases one way or another. But crime will rise as bootlegging increases.
And the Indian tribes pop some DP, light up some Havana rollers, and chuckle through it all. Good for them. The state has no stomach for fighting indians. They’ve figured out that it’s much easier and safer to mug Joe Blows like us who have let this hypocrisy and theft continue decade after decade after decade with little more than a shrug and a shake of the head.