Suit over ‘cessation fee’

Oklahoma’s Attorney General Mike Hunter has said he will defend the state after two major tobacco companies and other interested parties filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a tobacco cessation fee, according to a story by Heide Brandes for the Red Dirt Report.

Philip Morris USA and RJ Reynolds filed suit with the Oklahoma Supreme Court over a bill that was signed into law in May.

Senate Bill 845 imposes a fee of $1.50 per pack of cigarettes, to be paid for by wholesalers.

The fee is scheduled to go into effect in August.

Lawmakers approved the fee as a revenue-raising measure to help fill Oklahoma’s nearly $900 million budget hole and as a way of reducing tobacco smoking.

The fee is designed to help fund health initiatives in Oklahoma.

The suit claims that the bill is not a cessation fee and is instead a strictly revenue-raising bill. According to the lawsuit, all revenue-raising bills must originate in the Oklahoma House of Representatives, be passed before the last five days of a session and be approved by a three-quarters supermajority of House members.