Tobacco Documents Online

~ PHILIP MORRIS INCORPORATBD~. 1'00~.PAFiK AVENUE„N~EVN. WORK~, N IY. 10017~ STANLEY 6. .SCOTT' D111lCTOR OF CORFORA?6 PUlLIC.AFFAIRi August 10, 1978' Dear Citizen: We thought you might be interested in the attached' article by Morris Weintraub, consultant to the New York State Special Task Force on Cigarette Bootlegging and the Cigaret Tax. The Assembly of New York has passed a bill (13144')) to reduce the New York State'cigarette tax by one' cent and eliminate the New York City cigarette tax. The bill now awaits action by the New York State Senate. We believe that the New York Senate's approval ofthiis legislation will he~lplegiitimatewh~olesalersp and retailers force organized crime out of the cigarette business. The bootleggers have had a strangle-hold on the New York City cigarette market. It is here that sales will return to normal patterns if the boot- legger is driven out by lower legal prices. In, essence, the tax recision will eliminate the profit incenti:ve for bootleggiers. Further, the reduced legitimate price will encourage smokers to purchasee their cigarettes legally rather than illegailly. The power to eliminate this $70-million annual profit from'organized crime rests in the hands of the New York State Senate, Anything that you can do tolhe'lp return legitimacy to cigarette sales in New York State, would'be deeply appreciated..