by Javier Manjarres
House Majority Leader Carlos Lopez Cantera and Representative Erik Fresen both went on the record stating that Representative John Tobia’s HB 1207 will be ” dead on arrival” as the bill calls for an increase in taxes on small tobacco companies, most notably Dosal, Inc., of Opa Locka. To recap, Dosal was excluded from a 1997 lawsuit levied against ‘Big Tobacco’ by the federal government and 46 states, but now the large tobacco companies are looking to even the playing field by lobbying for a tax on Dosal and other small tobacco companies that were not party to the lawsuit.Tobia apparently has decided to break from the ‘no new taxes, lower taxes’ message that Governor Rick Scott and the Republican Legislature have championed this legislative session. In 2010 Tobia enlisted the support of Senate President Mike Haridopolos and House Speaker Dean Cannon to narrowly beat first time candidate Lori Halbert by 191 votes in the Republican Primary, and leadership’s support of his campaign was probably the difference.
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A little bird up in Tallahassee has told me that Speaker Cannon is not so happy with Tobia bucking the GOP with this tax proposal on small business. Suffice to say, Tobia’s break with his Party could become very problematic if he were to seek re-election next year.
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