Compose an Operation Rollback letter to fax to your state legislators:

1. COPY AND PASTE THE FOLLOWING ONTO YOUR LETTERHEAD

2. ADD INFORMATION SPECIFIC TO YOUR BUSINESS

3. CHANGE/ADD/DELETE ANYTHING YOU WISH

4. ADDRESS ONE LETTER TO YOUR ASSEMBLY MEMBER, AND A SEPARATE ONE TO YOUR SENATOR

5. PRINT OUT LETTERS, AND FAX THEM TO SENATOR AND ASSEMBLY MEMBER

Honorable ____ ____

New York State Senate

(Albany office room# – see database)

Albany NY 12247

or

Honorable ____ ____

New York State Assembly

(Albany office room # – see database)

Albany NY 12248

Dear (Senator / Member of Assembly) ______:

(Start by describing the nature and size of your business, the counties where you operate, how many people you employ)

(My store is / our stores are) among the 24,000 retail establishments statewide currently paying $100 per year to register with the state Department of Taxation and Finance as a retail tobacco dealer.

However, under the new state budget, that fee is scheduled to skyrocket to $1,000, $2,500, or $5,000, depending on gross sales of everything we sell, not just tobacco products.

Based on our 2008 sales, that means our company would have to pay $________ next year for this fee. Where are we supposed to find this money in the midst of a deep recession? No small business should be forced to pay 10 to 50 times more in license fees, especially in the midst of an economic downturn.

And such fees should not be designed to punish the licensee for selling a legal product in accordance with all State regulations governing such commerce. Rather, the fee should reflect the State’s administrative costs associated with that registration, not business volume, and certainly not sales of products unrelated to the license.

It’s outrageous to saddle law-abiding retailers with exorbitant fees while competing Native American stores – many of which sell 50 times the volume of cigarettes we do – are allowed to sell tobacco to New Yorkers without getting a State license, without paying any fee at all, without collecting taxes, and without a biding by duly enacted regulations.

Thousands of neighborhood retailers will be unable to afford these excessive fees, and will have to stop selling tobacco products. Many of the displaced smokers will shift their purchases to unlicensed sources of tobacco, further reducing the State’s tax revenue. In addition, with fewer customers coming through our door, lottery sales will suffer, meaning less State revenue for aid to education.

While a modest increase in the fee would be understandable, an increase of 900% to 2,400% is appalling.

In the interest of keeping small businesses viable, and preserving State tobacco tax and lottery revenue, please pass an amendment to roll back these tobacco retail dealer fees before the 2009 legislative session adjourns. I hope our company can count on your support.

Sincerely,

Your name & title