Tobacco retailers in Beverly Hills are about to get hit with a $205 annual permit fee as part of a city ordinance to clamp down on retailers who sell tobacco products to minors.

An ordinance setting up the tobacco retailer permit program is set to come before the City Council in the next several weeks. It would raise an estimated $10,000 from 51 tobacco retailers in the city, with the money going to fund surprise compliance checks.

Tobacco retailers aren’t happy.

“We already pay a state tobacco license fee,” said Marsha Kramer Keller, co-owner of Kramer’s Pipe and Tobacco on Santa Monica Boulevard. “While it won’t break the bank by itself, this is just one more tax that’s piled on top of everything else we have to pay. We’re just a small family business.”

What’s more, Keller said, the fee is likely to increase over time. “These fees are constantly being raised as program costs go up,” she said.

But some say it’s preferable to the alternative the city had been considering: banning stores from selling tobacco products within 600 feet of schools and other sites popular with kids.

“I may not like it, but the fee isn’t going to kill me,” said Allan Brooks, owner of Al’s Newsstand on South Beverly Drive. “However, the zoning program they were talking about might have meant I would have had to stop selling tobacco products altogether.”

That’s because Al’s Newsstand is less than 600 feet from a pizza place popular with teenagers.

In addition to the $205 annual fee, the fines imposed on retailers caught selling tobacco products to minors will pay for the inspections.

Harbor Rules

State air regulators are poised to expand a rule limiting diesel emissions to cover more categories of harbor craft, such as barges and dredge vessels.

The California Air Resources Board this week is set to consider expanding its 2007 commercial harbor craft regulation to include about 175 crew and supply ships, barge and dredge vessels operating along California’s coastal ports and waters. Many of these vessels service offshore oil platforms.

Over the next 12 years, these ships will have to convert to cleaner-burning fuels or be replaced with newer vessels to meet the state’s stringent limits on diesel emissions. The ships with the oldest and/or dirtiest engines will have the earliest compliance deadlines, starting next year.

In documents released earlier this year, air board staff estimated the regulation will cost ship operators up to $60 million over the next 12 years as they do the conversions.

Air board officials decided to expand the rule because recent research had indicated some of the vessels emitted more diesel exhaust than originally estimated. Diesel exhaust is regarded as a major contributor to cancer and respiratory illnesses.

Also, some operators of barges and dredge vessels said they were already complying with different state regulations limiting diesel emissions that set separate standards. The board specified that the harbor craft standards will now apply for all categories.

‘Job Killers’ Killed

Seven of the 37 bills that the California Chamber of Commerce designated last month as “job killers” have been stopped in the Legislature, the chamber reported last week.

Thirty have proceeded, but many of those may still be halted before the legislative session ends. Some may reach the governor’s desk, and he’s likely to veto almost all of those.

The seven bills that were stopped – including workplace mandates and expiration of tax incentives – all failed to clear their house of origin by the June 4 deadline. The chamber credits aggressive lobbying by business groups for stopping the bills.

Six of the seven bills were authored by Democrats; one was authored by an independent legislator.

Among the seven bills now considered dead for the year were a bill allowing hospital workers sickened by the H1N1 virus to claim workers’ compensation benefits and another bill enacting strict regulations on food packagers aimed at reducing marine debris.

Two of the bills would have required all state tax incentive programs to sunset – or expire – unless renewed. One of those would have ended all incentive programs after one year; the other after five years.

The job killer bills that remain include

an oil extraction tax and several that would roll back previously granted tax breaks for business.

Staff reporter Howard Fine can be reached at [email protected] or at (323) 549-5225, ext. 227.