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May 12 , 2006
A Newsletter of the National Association of Tobacco Outlets, Inc.
By: Thomas A. Briant, Executive Director
April 2006 Volume 6, No. 2
NATO Gala Dinner a “First Class” Success
NATO’s celebration of the association’s fifth anniversary at the NATO Gala Awards Dinner held on March 27 th at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada was a spectacular “First Class” success! From the board of directors decked out in their finest evening wear, to the balloon speckled ballroom to the filet mignon and lobster tail dinner, the event was a night to remember.
During the Gala Dinner, the NATO Pinnacle Awards were presented to Swedish Match N.A., Fred Hoyt of Smoke’N Go and John Dan Gielen of Tobacco Plus for their support of and involvement in NATO’s legislative efforts.
NATO Vice-President Andrew Kerstein Presents the Pinnacle Award to Dan Carr and Chuck Pavona of Swedish Match
NATO President Velma Hartley Congratulates NATO Retail Pinnacle Award Winners Fred Hoyt and John Dan Gielen
A special thank you is extended to the sponsors of the NATO Gala Dinner whose generous contributions made this special event possible. The sponsors include Philip Morris U.S.A., R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, Tobacco Outlet Business Magazine, Conwood Sales Company, John Middleton, Inc., Swedish Match, N.A., Swisher International and U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company.
NATO Monitor/April 2006
President’s Message |
Dear NATO Members:
As I stood in the receiving line welcoming guests to the NATO Gala Dinner at the Flamingo Ballroom, I realized how deeply NATO has impacted the tobacco industry. More than 500 tobacco retailers, manufacturers, distributors and trade press filled the Flamingo Hotel Ballroom to celebrate all of NATO’s hard work over the past five years.
No one could have known when we came up with the idea to form NATO that the association would grow so quickly and earn the respect of the entire industry. NATO filled a void by organizing tobacco stores to stand up and fight excessive taxes, unfair regulations and attempts to prevent tobacco users from enjoying legal tobacco products.
NATO’s success and leadership among tobacco store associations is a tribute to all of you who have supported our efforts. This year, we honored Swedish Match and retailers Fred Hoyt and John Dan Gielen by presenting them with the NATO Pinnacle Award for their extraordinary efforts and support of NATO. Just like these award recipients, every NATO member should feel a real sense of pride because your support has helped build NATO into what it is today and what it will become in the future.
-Velma Hartley, NATO President
New NATO Initiatives
Three new initiatives to enhance NATO’s legislative leadership position were announced by NATO Vice-President Andrew Kerstein at the NATO Gala Dinner. To build its legislative influence, NATO is broadening its retail membership base by offering a limited associate legislative membership to other types of retailers that sell tobacco products. Since the anti-tobacco advocates are blind to what kind of retailers their prohibitionist legislative efforts will impact, NATO is offering retailers in other market segments the benefit of the association’s legislative alert capabilities so they can join the fight against unfair tobacco legislation.
A second initiative just underway involves NATO seeking to form partnerships with other national trade associations to alert their respective members to state tobacco legislation. With national groups focusing on federal issues pending before Congress, NATO is well suited to take on the task of sending alerts to members of other tobacco-related trade associations.
The third initiative is being spearheaded by NATO’s Public Relations Committee and will focus the public debate about tobacco issues on the need to protect personal liberties and individual freedoms. This effort will sensitize the American public to the false information that anti-tobacco advocates so routinely refer to as the “facts”.
NATO Monitor/April 2006
Legislative Update
Since January, NATO’s legislative staff and association members have been fighting to protect retailers and tobacco consumers from unfair tax increases, restrictions on the right to smoke tobacco products, prohibitions on self-service displays and other kinds of tobacco legislation. Below is a brief update on the final outcome of bills in various states:Alabama: A bill banning self-service displays of cigarettes and legislation to ban smoking statewide died due to legislative adjournment.
Arizona: A self-service display ban bill was amended to remove all of the restrictions on retail store tobacco displays.
Arkansas: A smoking ban bill which exempts tobacco stores and bars was enacted April 7 th.
Colorado: A smoking ban bill which allows smoking in tobacco stores, cigar bars, casinos, small business and the airport smoking lounge was signed into law by the Governor.
Kentucky: A $.45 per pack cigarette tax increase was defeated.
Maryland: Two victories were recorded when a smoking ban and legislation to increase cigarette and tobacco product taxes were defeated.
Minnesota: A statewide smoking restriction bill first introduced last year was not advanced during the 2006 legislative session and is dead for the year.
Legislative Update (con’t)
Mississippi: The vetoes by Governor Haley Barbour of two bills to increase cigarette taxes failed to be overridden and NATO sent a thank you letter to Governor Barbour for not allowing the tax increases to become law.
Nebraska: A bill to raise the legal age to buy and use tobacco products died when the legislature adjourned on April 13 th.
New Hampshire: A bill that would have increased the cigarette tax by 5 cents a pack was defeated in a New Hampshire legislative committee.
New York: Both the House and the Senate passed a budget and rejected the Governor’s $1.50 per pack cigarette tax increase.
South Carolina: The South Carolina House of Representatives passed a budget and rejected several amendments to increase the cigarette excise tax.
Utah: Legislation to ban smoking was passed, but amendments were approved to allow smoking in bars and private clubs.
Virginia: A bill to ban smoking statewide was initially passed by the Senate only to be defeated by a unanimous vote in a House committee.
Wyoming: An attempt to increase the cigarette tax by $.40 per pack and the OTP tax by 13.33% was defeated.
NATO Monitor/April 2006
NATO E-News Bulletins
Since last year, NATO has been e-mailing to NATO members a NATO E-News Bulletin on a regular basis with up-to-date information on NATO’s legislative efforts and other important association activities. The NATO staff makes every attempt to send the E-News bulletins to each member that has an e-mail address. If you are not receiving the E-News, please e-mail us at info@natocentral.com with your e-mail address and we will make sure you begin to receive these important bulletins. You will need Microsoft Word to open the Bulletin which is sent as an attachment to the e-mail.Member Directory Page
The NATO website now includes a new page filled with manufacturer and distributor company logos, contact information, product summaries and hotlinks to each member’s website. Retail members are encouraged to visit this new page to learn about NATO manufacturer and distributor members and the products they offer. This is a unique service to assist NATO retail members find manufacturer and distributor websites. For those manufacturers and distributors that have not yet sent in their logo, contact information and website address, please forward that information to NATO Website Administrator Patrick Flannery at plflannery@bellsouth.net.$$$ Savings for Members
One of the best NATO membership benefits is the very low credit card processing rates offered by First Data Merchant Services. A number of NATO retailers have signed up for this credit card processing service and added a significant amount to their bottom line each month. To learn more, retailers can contact First Data Merchant Services Representative Juergen Hinz at 1-800-767-2484, Extension 55768 or on his mobile telephone which is 260-341-7929.A second cost-saving membership benefit is provided by ADT ® Security Services, Inc. As NATO’s preferred security system provider, ADT will offer members discounts of 5% on the system installation prices of intrusion detection systems, and 10% on the system installation prices of video surveillance and access control systems. To learn more about this benefit, contact ADT at 1-888-228-0249
Welcome New Members
New members recently joining NATO are Ashton Distributors, Barrington House International, Ltd., Davidoff of Geneva (CT), Inc., HBI International, Inc., Howard House Tobacco, International Pipes and Accessories, LLC, JM Tobacco, Peoples True Taste, Inc., Smokeshop Magazine, Tabacos USA, Inc. and USA Tobacco Company .
