ND lawmakers mull roll-your-own smokes bill

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The State Tax Department is supporting a bill that would require commercial roll-your-own cigarette machine owners to register their equipment and pay the same taxes as name-brand packaged smokes.

State Tax Department attorney Daniel Rouse told the Senate Finance and Taxation Committee on Wednesday that the commercial roll-your-own machines are a recent phenomenon and are beginning to appear in North Dakota.

Rouse says the machines cost about $35,000 and are about the size of a jukebox. He says they can crank out a carton of cigarettes in about eight minutes.

Rouse says the machines use loose pipe tobacco that is taxed at just one-tenth the rate as cigarettes.

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