California voters narrowly rejected Proposition 29, which would have raised taxes on various tobacco products, including cigars. The measure would have raised California’s state OTP tax from just over 33% to just under 55%, a nearly 75% increase.

Prop 29 Fails

Fortunately for California, the measure was rejected last night by a margin of over 60,000 votes, meaning California will not see a raise in cigar taxes in the immediate future.

California Citizens Against Wasteful Taxes, a group lobbying against Prop 29, is a halfwheel sponsor.

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Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.