CITY HALL — The hope by City Council to impose a new Chicago tax on smokeless tobacco is locked up, like so much else, in the General Assembly, according to the city's leading attorney.
Still, said Ald. Joe Moreno (1st) during council budget hearings Friday on the Law Department, "I'd like to move forward on it."
Moreno backed it as a health benefit for children, especially with flavored chews being marketed by tobacco companies, but estimated it could also raise as much as $20 million a year.
"It's real money that we could use right now," Moreno added.
"This administration is fully supportive of that," said Corporation Counsel Stephen Patton. "The problem is how we get there legally."
According to Patton, "We need to change state law" to grant the city the right to impose that new tax. He said a bill allowing that tax had cleared the state Senate, but not the House of Representatives.
"I'm not trusting Springfield for anything," Moreno said, suggesting they go ahead and impose the tax and dare tobacco firms to file suit.
Without endorsing that course, Patton said it was an option the city and Mayor Rahm Emanuel could explore.
It is not, however, expected to move forward in the current process for the 2016 city budget, which is slated to be voted on before the end of the month.
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