4月13日，特拉华州众议院收入和财政委员会（Delaware House Revenue & Finance Committee）投票通过 “S.B. 131”提案，拟将该州的雪茄征收从批发价的30%降至15%。表决结果是10票支持降低税率，2票反对，一票弃权。

提案由该州的民主党参议员劳拉·斯特金（Laura Sturgeon）于 2021 年 5 月 10 日提出，仅适用于优质雪茄。优质雪茄的立法定义为：

完全由烟草制成，包括茄衣、茄套、茄芯。

手工卷制。

不含任何由烟草以外的材料或者调味剂组成的滤嘴、吸嘴、烟嘴。

这个提案的本意是希望特拉华州的优质雪茄税率和周边几个州的税率相比具有竞争力。马里兰州的优质雪茄税率是批发价的15%，宾夕法尼亚州没有烟草税，新泽西州的税率是30%。

预计减税将使特拉华州2023年财政收入减少62.72美元。

高级雪茄协会（Premium Cigar Association）副执行董事约书亚·哈伯斯基（Joshua Habursky）在委员会作证时说：“这是一个可以为特拉华州的小企业及其顾客提供援助的机会，优质雪茄协会强烈支持这种亲小企业提案。”

附参考文章：

Cigar smokers in “The First State” may be getting a tax break in the future. The Delaware House Revenue & Finance Committee voted yesterday to advance S.B. 131, a bill that will cut the state tax on premium cigars in half, from 30 percent of the wholesale price to 15 percent.

Now that the bill has overwhelmingly passed the Finance Committee (by a vote of 10-2 with one abstention), it has to go to the House Appropriations Committee before reaching the Assembly floor.

The bill was introduced on May 10, 2021 by Democrat State Senator Laura Sturgeon. It applies solely to premium cigars, defined in the legislation as:

Made entirely of tobacco, including the wrapper, binder, and filler

Hand rolled

Contains no filter, tip, or any mouthpiece consisting of material other than tobacco, or any additional flavoring 

The bill aims to make Delaware’s premium cigar tax rate competitive with the tax rates of its surrounding states. Maryland’s tax on premium cigars is 15 percent of the wholesale tax, Pennsylvania doesn’t have any tobacco tax at all, and New Jersey has a tax rate of 30 percent. 

According to the official fiscal note, the tax reduction is estimated to cost the state of Delaware $627,200 in annual revenue for the year 2023. 

“This is a unique opportunity to address a source of assistance for small businesses and their patrons that are based in Delaware,” said Joshua Habursky, deputy executive director for the Premium Cigar Association, in his testimony before the committee. 

“S.B. 131 is a pro small business bill that the Premium Cigar Association strongly endorses.”