Hudsonkm

As I mentioned in my last post: We were able to defeat the bill in Illinois and New Yorkers can do the same. In our case the bill made it through the Senate and on to the House. Illinois E-Cigarette users attended the hearings and the state actually listened to their stories and discussions of the positive experiences they have had with the product. The following day we found that the Chair of the Human Services Committee REMOVED her name as a sponsor of the bill due to what was said at the hearing. It was also determined that most of the info they had which led to the attempted ban was from the American Lung Association. As in New York, Illinois cigarette taxes are insane. Likewise, I have to admit that I was indeed worried that we didn't have much chance to defeat the bill for that reason alone. I was proven wrong thankfully, and our bill as of last week went 19(a) and was sent back to the rules committee. It can be re-introduced in a future session but for the time being we are keeping our fingers crossed.

This post is meant to let all of you in New York know that this is not even remotely close to being over. Even if it passes the Senate, it still is _not_ over. Recently in Illinois we went through the same thing due to SB3174. However, the majority of the outcry against the bill didn't even take place until after it was passed by the Senate. Our bill had moved fairly fast, and this is the reason most people didn't even realize what had happened until it was already on it's way to the House. Yet in the end we were able to defeat the bill for the time being. S7234 is not as far along as ours was and therefore you have even more time to fight it than we had. To give you an idea of what happened in Illinois I'll list the time line below. I am including the steps taken by the citizens of Illinois in protest of the bill as they happened. ------ 2/9/2010 Senate Filed with Secretary by Sen. Terry Link 2/9/2010 Senate First Reading 2/9/2010 Senate Referred to Assignments 2/24/2010 Senate Assigned to Public Health 2/24/2010 Senate Senate Committee Amendment No. 1 Filed with Secretary by Sen. Terry Link 2/24/2010 Senate Senate Committee Amendment No. 1 Referred to Assignments 3/2/2010 Senate Senate Committee Amendment No. 1 Assignments Refers to Public Health 3/2/2010 Senate Senate Committee Amendment No. 1 Adopted 3/3/2010 Senate Do Pass as Amended Public Health; 006-001-001 3/3/2010 Senate Placed on Calendar Order of 2nd Reading March 4, 2010 3/3/2010 Senate Added as Chief Co-Sponsor Sen. Jacqueline Y. Collins 3/4/2010 Senate Added as Co-Sponsor Sen. Edward D. Maloney 3/4/2010 Senate Added as Co-Sponsor Sen. Kwame Raoul 3/5/2010 Senate Added as Co-Sponsor Sen. Ira I. Silverstein 3/5/2010 Senate Added as Co-Sponsor Sen. William Delgado 3/9/2010 Senate Second Reading 3/9/2010 Senate Placed on Calendar Order of 3rd Reading March 10, 2010 3/10/2010 Senate Added as Co-Sponsor Sen. Martin A. Sandoval 3/10/2010 Senate Added as Chief Co-Sponsor Sen. Mattie Hunter 3/10/2010 Senate Added as Co-Sponsor Sen. Louis S. Viverito 3/10/2010 Senate Third Reading - Passed; 049-004-000 3/11/2010 House Arrived in House ------ It was at this point that most of the E-Cigarette users in Illinois had first heard of the bill. There were many here that may have thought it was too late at that point to even fight it. Letter's went out to representatives and authors of the bill from concerned Illinois citizens. And as was found later, letters of protest came in from people living in other states as well. Further people were alerted after an article was run by the Chicago Tribune. 3/11/2010 House Chief House Sponsor Rep. Marlow H. Colvin 3/11/2010 House Placed on Calendar Order of First Reading 3/11/2010 House First Reading 3/11/2010 House Referred to Rules Committee 3/17/2010 House Added Alternate Chief Co-Sponsor Rep. Eddie Washington 3/17/2010 House Added Alternate Co-Sponsor Rep. Joseph M. Lyons 3/17/2010 House Added Alternate Co-Sponsor Rep. Karen A. Yarbrough 3/22/2010 House Assigned to Human Services Committee 3/23/2010 House Added Alternate Co-Sponsor Rep. Naomi D. Jakobsson On 4/14 a hearing was scheduled in Springfield. In a fairly impressive show of protest, Illinois E-Cigarette users attended the hearing and were given a chance to speak against the bills passage. It was noted that the officials at the hearing seemed to take what was being said to heart and perhaps even begin to question their own reasons for signing the bill in the first place. The hearing ended with no final decision and a preliminary date for a follow up hearing was listed to take place on 4/21. On 4/15 there was yet another update to the status of the bill as the chair of the Human Services Committee removed her name as a Co-Sponsor of SB3174. 4/15/2010 House Alternate Co-Sponsor Removed Rep. Naomi D. Jakobsson The plan after this was to show for the following week's hearing in even greater number than the first. Surprisingly enough, it didn't even get that far as no notification was given that SB3174 would even be called on 4/21. 4/23/2010 House Rule 19(a) / Re-referred to Rules Committee On the 23rd it was essentially dismissed from the current senate session as explained by Rule 19(a). And in the end a follow-up hearing wasn't even needed. It can pop up again if it is re-introduced in a future session but as of now we are keeping our fingers crossed. Anyhow, I just thought those of you in New York would like to see how the same situation panned out here in Illinois. Even if just to give you a little more hope when it comes to your chances of defeating the bill. On my end, I will be writing a letter or three as a concerned Illinois citizens in support of E-Cigarette users in New York.