NATO New York Strategy:  Video and Tax Windfall Letters

Today, NATO uploaded a video message opposing the New York State cigarette tax increase on the association’s website (www.natocentral.org) and on YouTube.  In addition, NATO sent a second letter to New York Senate Finance Committee members urging them to oppose the governor’s plan to increase the state cigarette tax by $1.00 per pack and the state OTP tax rate on pipe tobacco and cigars from 46% to 90% of the manufacturer’s price.

**If you would like to send a letter to oppose the governor’s plan, please contact me and I will send you the form letter as a file that you can mail, fax, or e-mail. Please help us fight the good fight!!**

NATO Files Comments on PACT Act and FDA Outdoor Advertisement Ban

This week, NATO filed comments supporting the U.S. Postal Service’s proposed rule to enforce the provisions of the PACT Act prohibiting the mailing of cigarettes, roll-your-own tobacco and smokeless tobacco.  Also this week, NATO filed a set of comments objecting to the FDA’s notice of rulemaking regarding restrictions on outdoor tobacco advertising.  The Postal Service will be issuing an initial rule implementing the PACT Act law by June 29, 2010, just two days before the PACT Act takes effect on July 1st.  The FDA has now extended the time to submit comments on the outdoor advertising ban restrictions to July 17, 2010.  Copies of NATO’s comments accompany this E-News Bulletin.

State Tobacco Legislative Update

Connecticut: The Connecticut legislature adjourned without taking any action on a bill that would have increased the OTP tax on pipe tobacco and roll-your-own tobacco to $73.84 per pound.  Earlier this month, NATO sent each Connecticut lawmaker a letter regarding the potential tax windfall that the state would receive due to the federal PACT Act taking effect July 1^st.

Georgia: Several bills that would have increased the state’s cigarette tax rate by $.63 per pack and $1.00 per pack, respectively, plus another bill that proposed raising the OTP tax from 10% to 25%, were not passed due to the adjournment of the legislature.

Kansas: A $.55 per pack cigarette tax increase and an OTP tax rate increase from 10% to 40% were not passed by the Kansas legislature.  Also, a bill to tax little cigars as cigarettes also failed.

Massachusetts: The Massachusetts legislature did not pass a bill to raise the excise tax on cigars to 110% and the tax on pipe tobacco to 120% while also rejecting a ban on flavored tobacco products.

Minnesota: A bill that would have taxed little cigars as cigarettes was amended and the tax provisions were deleted from the legislation.

New Hampshire: The New Hampshire House Finance Committee defeated the governor’s proposal for a $.20 per pack cigarette tax increase.  However, the House passed an increase in the OTP tax rate from 48.59% to 65.03%.  This OTP tax increase is still pending in the New Hampshire legislature.  New Hampshire was one of the states in which NATO sent letters to lawmakers informing them of a tax windfall due to the enactment of the PACT Act.

South Carolina: The South Carolina Governor vetoed a $.50 per pack cigarette tax increase, but both the Senate and the House voted to override the veto.  The new higher cigarette tax rate of $.57 per pack goes into effect on July 1, 2010.

Published in today’s New York Times, I personally find this concept to be wonderful on all levels.

For one this allows many people — whom in the last few years hopped on the foodie bandwagon — to indulge in their sudden desire to really understand food at their own pace. From a more practical standpoint, maybe society will finally stop ordering takeout and eating fast food when they realize it’s not always complicated to prepare tasty and often healthier meals in their own homes.

If you don’t have much culinary experience or want to broaden your personal recipe book, would you join Top Chef University.com?

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TV’s Top Chefs Star in Online University

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

You’ve watched them whip up delectable dishes, and a soupcon of drama, in the Top Chef kitchen. Now, stars of the hit Bravo TV series are ready to school their fans: Pack your knives and go… online.

Top Chef University.com, formally launching this week, is designed to give users the experience of culinary school at their own pace, with 12 courses covering about 60 hours of content.

”It’s so unique because it’s truly a comprehensive program and it’s really the first of its kind,” says Nikki Cascone, Season 4 contestant and one of the instructors.

The site was created by Jeff Goldenberg, founder of Post Oaks Productions, a leading provider of live and virtual consumer training. He approached Bravo with the concept after getting hooked on the show. Given the green light, he hired trained chef Anthony Hoy Fong and Top Chef judge and culinary expert Gail Simmons to write the curriculum.

Both Simmons and Fong are culinary school graduates and they wanted to develop a program that felt was professional but also would resonate with home cooks.

While graduates won’t come out professional chefs, ”if you take this program to the end you will have, I believe, a really strong knowledge of the kitchen,” says Simmons.

Instructors were picked with an eye to their time on the show. So, Cascone, known for her pasta, is teaching about pasta and grains. Richard Blais, the chef from Season 4 who favored cutting edge techniques like cooking sous vide, is teaching the advanced course that includes molecular gastronomy.

The program, which costs $25 a month or $200 for yearlong access, begins with the basics — knife skills, pantry stocking — and moves on to stocks, soups, vegetables, proteins and dessert before finishing up with global cuisine and advanced techniques.

”It really is the only place on the Internet that takes you by the hand and leads you from beginning to end,” Goldenberg said.

Instructors include Season 2′s Marcel Vigneron, known for his ambitious cooking techniques — and hairstyle — and the behatted Spike Mendelsohn from Season 4. The courses are unhurried, with instructors going through the process in a methodical fashion.

”These guys are real chefs. They cook in restaurants every night. You’re really getting one-on-one access to a professional chef,” said Fong, who is culinary director of the online school.

Site users are given written tests to see if they’ve absorbed the material and will be able to upload pictures of their finished work and ask questions on class forums. Though no one can verify whether the dishes produced are hits or misses, coursework must be completed before the next level is unlocked.

So, no dramatic denouements where ousted chefs get the show’s signature dismissal line of ”Please pack your knives and go!” But those who complete the program will be Top Chef Certified.

At the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., communications director Stephan Hengst thought the idea was intriguing.

The CIA has teamed with Bravo in years past to run demo cooking classes in New York, which proved popular, says Hengst, ”so it doesn’t surprise me that Bravo is trying to continue to grow the Top Chef brand.”

”For the enthusiast who’s looking to get some more face time with their favorite Top Chef celebrities, I think it’s a great chance for them to be entertained and to be educated,” he said, noting that a number of Top Chef contestants, including some winners, are CIA grads. However, the online course ”Doesn’t necessarily stand up to the rigors of a professional culinary education,” he says.

Of course, Top Chef University is thousands of dollars less than culinary school, and Cascone thinks it’s a case of comparing apples and oranges. ”There are great things to be offered about both programs,” she says. ”With the Top Chef University you can pause and you can constantly go back. It’s really like an encyclopedia.”

”I’m convinced that the home cooks and all the foodies out there are going to love this being brought to their living rooms.”