Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Committee approves cigar-lounge bill amendment to include pipe tobacco; bill given do-pass as amended
Summary
The Finance and Taxation Committee adopted an amendment to House Bill 1440 to allow pipe tobacco sales to count toward the cigar-lounge sales threshold and to permit new lounges to qualify in their first year; after debate the committee voted to give the bill a do-pass recommendation as amended.
Representative Dan Ruby, sponsor of House Bill 1440, asked the committee to clarify two issues that had arisen since last session’s creation of a cigar-lounge exemption to the indoor smoking law: whether a new lounge must demonstrate prior-year cigar sales to qualify, and whether pipe tobacco should count toward the sales threshold.
"What I'm proposing is a slight amendment ... to allow the cigar lounge to be licensed in their first year and then to meet the threshold to qualify to be renewed," Representative Dan Ruby said, describing how the tax department was interpreting the existing statute.
Josette Dupree, owner of Big Stick Cigar Lounge in Mandan, said the law helped…
Already have an account? Log in
Subscribe to keep reading
Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.
- Unlimited articles
- AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
- Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
- Follow topics and more locations
- 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
