Sonoma County poised to hike price of cigarettes

Will minors be deterred from buying cigarettes if they cost $7 a pack?

Sonoma County health officials are betting yes.

Under a sweeping county proposal set to go before the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, the price floor for cigarettes would rise to $7 per pack at nearly 140 stores outside of city limits.

The move, part of an ambitious anti-smoking campaign first unveiled last April, is aimed at reducing smoking among teens and combating tobacco companies’ marketing tactics that county health officials contend target people younger than 18.

In Sonoma County, the cost for cigarettes varies by location and customer base. People who purchase cigarettes in downtown Santa Rosa already pay about $7 per pack, but near Santa Rosa Junior College, where there is a high concentration of young people, liquor stores sell the same brand for around $4 - discounts subsidized by tobacco companies.

Under the county proposal, discounting would be prohibited. Retailers also would be required to pay $330 every year for an annual license to sell tobacco, and new licenses would not be permitted within 1,000 feet of schools.

E-cigarettes also would be classified as tobacco products.

Supervisors delayed voting on the proposal last April, and again in September, after hearing vehement opposition from independent tobacco retailers and trade groups. In response, health officials have revised some provisions, but local store owners are still expressing frustration.

“I remain deeply troubled by (this) process. … It’s a total sham,” Ned Mogannam, owner of Larkfield Liquor & Deli, wrote to the board in advance of Tuesday’s meeting.

Mogannam has railed against the proposal since last spring.

“There are so many things wrong with the proposal,” he wrote. “The minimum price alone will put me out of business.”

Retailers said new rules would create an uneven playing field if they did not apply to stores in city limits because people would be able to simply purchase cigarettes elsewhere. Health officials said they plan to address those concerns by working with cities to adopt minimum pricing rules as well as require annual licenses within city limits.

At present, Sonoma and Healdsburg already have tobacco retail licenses, but the cities do not set minimum pricing. All nine cities, including Santa Rosa, have expressed “some level of interest” in adopting similar proposals as the county’s, according to health officials.

Under the county’s revised proposal, the annual license fee has been lowered from $1,000 to the proposed $330.

In addition, the minimum pricing rules have been delayed another year. If approved, the new $7-per-pack price would go into effect in January 2018 instead of 2017.

If new regulations are adopted, retailers would be required to obtain an annual license by July 1 of this year.

Licensing requirements are common in California. Across the state, roughly 140 other local governments have adopted ordinances that require retailers to pay licensing fees ranging from $250 to $1,500 per year.

However, it is believed that Sonoma County would be the first in the state to set a minimum price per pack. At least 25 other states have adopted minimum pricing laws, but they are designed to prevent retailers from undercutting their competition with very low prices, not for public health reasons.

The Board of Supervisors is expected to take up the proposal at 10 a.m. Tuesday.

You can reach Staff Writer Angela Hart at 526-8503 or angela.hart@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter ?@ahartreports.