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Lawsuit likely over roll-your-own smokes tax in Washington

Screen grab from Tobacco Joe's Roll Your Own website.
Screen grab from Tobacco Joe's Roll Your Own website.

OLYMPIA, Wash. – The burgeoning roll-your-own cigarette industry in Washington is preparing to do legal battle against the state. Governor Chris Gregoire is expected to sign into law today a new tax on do-it-yourself smokes. That will likely trigger a lawsuit.

Perhaps it was the Great Recession. Just in the last two years, the roll-your-own or RYO cigarette industry has taken off in Washington. More than 60 smoke shops across the state now have machines that allow usersto make their own cigarettes for about half the cost of a regular pack of smokes.

But this year Washington lawmakers passed legislation to stamp and tax RYOs more like regular cigarettes. Proponents view it as closing a loophole. But Joe Baba, a pioneer in the industry, is urging Governor Gregoire to veto the measure.

“Any time that a consumer is asked to spend time and energy and effort to make their own product, they should have a savings," Baba said.

Baba warns the tax will put roll-your-own shops out of business. He says he’s ready to go to court to challenge the tax if the governor signs it into law as expected. [I’m Austin Jenkins in Olympia.]

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Since January 2004, Austin Jenkins has been the Olympia-based political reporter for the Northwest News Network. In that position, Austin covers Northwest politics and public policy as well as the Washington State legislature. You can also see Austin on television as host of TVW's (the C–SPAN of Washington State) Emmy-nominated public affairs program "Inside Olympia." Prior to joining the Northwest News Network, Austin worked as a television reporter in Seattle, Portland and Boise. Austin is a graduate of Garfield High School in Seattle and Connecticut College in New London, Connecticut. Austin’s reporting has been recognized with awards from the Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors, Public Radio News Directors Incorporated and the Society of Professional Journalists.