Title: Surcharge on Cigarettes

Summary: Citing this act as the "Youth Smoking Prevention Act"; increasing the surcharge rates applicable to packages of cigarettes containing various quantities of cigarettes of specified weights and lengths; establishing a separate fee rollback account in a specified trust fund; requiring specified amounts of the surcharge on packages of cigarettes to be deposited in such separate fee rollback account; providing requirements and procedures with respect to the Legislature's anticipated use of such funds exclusively to incrementally roll back certain fee increases previously enacted, etc.

Full Text:
WHEREAS, each day, nearly 4,000 children in the United States try their first cigarettes, and an additional 1,000 children under years of age become regular, daily smokers, amounting to nearly 400,000 new underage smokers each year, and WHEREAS, the addiction rate for smoking is higher than the addiction rate for marijuana, alcohol, or cocaine, and symptoms of serious nicotine addiction often occur just weeks or even days after youth experimentation with smoking begins, and WHEREAS, nearly percent of all smokers begin while in their teens or earlier, and approximately one-third of all youth smokers will eventually die prematurely from smoking-related disease, and WHEREAS, research consistently confirms that policies that raise cigarette prices reduce smoking, including underage smoking, and WHEREAS, lower smoking prevalence resulting from higher cigarette prices reduces secondhand smoke exposure among nonsmokers, especially children and pregnant women, and WHEREAS, this state has had proven success in reducing smoking rates through policies that increase the price of cigarettes, and WHEREAS, since 2009, when a $1 surcharge was imposed on each pack of cigarettes sold in this state, pack sales have fallen by more than percent; the percentage of high school students who smoke has declined by more than one-quarter, from 14.3 percent to 10.1 percent; and the percentage of middle school students who smoke has seen an even more precipitous decline of more than one-third, from 5.4 percent to 3.3 percent, and WHEREAS, national economic research has shown that every 10-percent increase in the real price of cigarettes reduces overall cigarette consumption by approximately to percent, reduces the number of young adult smokers by 3.5 percent, and reduces the number of children who smoke by or percent, and WHEREAS, an additional tobacco surcharge would lead to even better public health, decrease the number of premature deaths caused by smoking, and prevent many youth from ever becoming smokers, NOW, THEREFORE, Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: Section 1.  Short title. This act may be cited as the  Youth Smoking Prevention Act.  Section 2. Section 210.011, Florida Statutes, is amended to read: 210.011 Cigarette surcharge levied; collection.  (1) A surcharge, in addition to all other taxes of every kind levied by law, is levied upon the sale, receipt, purchase, possession, consumption, handling, distribution, and use of cigarettes in this state, in the following amounts, except as otherwise provided in subsections (2)-(5), for cigarettes of standard dimensions: (a) Upon all cigarettes weighing not more than pounds per thousand, cents on each cigarette. (b) Upon all cigarettes weighing more than pounds per thousand and not more than inches long, cents on each cigarette. (c) Upon all cigarettes weighing more than pounds per thousand and more than inches long, cents on each cigarette. (2) The descriptions of cigarettes contained in subsection (1) are declared to be standard as to dimensions for the purpose of levying a surcharge as provided in this section. If any cigarette is received, purchased, possessed, sold, offered for sale, given away, or used which is of a size other than those standard dimensions, the cigarette is subject to a surcharge at the rate of 4.2 cents on each cigarette. (3) When cigarettes as described in paragraph (1)(a) are packed in varying quantities of cigarettes or fewer, except the manufacturer s free samples authorized under s. 210.04(9), the following rates shall govern: (a) Packages containing cigarettes or fewer require a surcharge of $1 cents.(b) Packages containing more than but not more than cigarettes require a surcharge of $2 $1.(4) When cigarettes as described in paragraph (1)(b) are packed in varying quantities of cigarettes or fewer, except the manufacturer s free samples authorized under s. 210.04(9), the following rates shall govern: (a) Packages containing cigarettes or fewer require a surcharge of $2 $1.(b) Packages containing more than but not more than cigarettes require a surcharge of $3 $2.(5) When cigarettes as described in paragraph (1)(c) are packed in varying quantities of cigarettes or fewer, except the manufacturer s free samples authorized under s. 210.04(9), the following rates shall govern: (a) Packages containing cigarettes or fewer require a surcharge of $3 $2.(b) Packages containing more than but not more than cigarettes require a surcharge of $5 $4.(6) This surcharge shall be paid by the dealer to the division for deposit and distribution as hereinafter provided upon the first sale or transaction within the state, whether such sale or transfer is to the ultimate purchaser or consumer. The seller or dealer shall collect the surcharge from the purchaser or consumer, and the purchaser or consumer shall pay the surcharge to the seller. The seller or dealer is responsible for the collection of the surcharge and payment of the surcharge to the division. All surcharges are due not later than the 10th day of the month following the calendar month in which they were incurred, and thereafter shall bear interest at the rate of percent per month. If the amount of surcharge due for a given period is assessed without allocating it to any particular month, the interest begins accruing on the date of the assessment. Whenever cigarettes are shipped from outside the state to anyone other than a distributing agent or wholesale dealer, the person receiving the cigarettes is responsible for the surcharge on the cigarettes and payment of the surcharge to the division. (7) It is the legislative intent that the surcharge on cigarettes be uniform throughout the state. (8) The surcharge levied under this section shall be administered, collected, and enforced in the same manner as the tax imposed under s. 210.02. (9) (a) Except as provided in paragraph (b), revenue produced from the surcharge levied under this section shall be deposited into the Health Care Trust Fund within the Agency for Health Care Administration. (b)1. There is established within the Highway Safety Operating Trust Fund within the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles a fee rollback account, which must be maintained as a separate account within the trust fund. 2. One dollar of revenue produced from the surcharge levied on each package of cigarettes described in paragraph (3)(b) and subsections (4) and (5) and cents from the surcharge levied on each package of cigarettes described in paragraph (3)(a) shall be deposited in the fee rollback account to be held in reserve until the Florida Consensus Estimating Conference provides formal written certification to the Legislative Budget Commission that the conference s official estimates project that adequate revenues exist in the fee rollback account to support the incremental rollback of fee increases enacted by the Legislature in chapter 2009-71, Laws of Florida. Thereafter, the Legislative Budget Commission may approve requests to transfer or direct the transfer of revenues from the fee rollback account to the General Revenue Fund or other appropriate trust funds, where such transferred funds shall remain unallocated in anticipation of, and exclusively for, use by the Legislature for the appropriation of funds to incrementally roll back the fee increases enacted in chapter 2009-71, Laws of Florida. Section 3. This act shall take effect July 1, 2013.