Budget Needs Let Fireworks Fly Lawfully

By ANDREW MARTIN
Published: July 2, 2011

The Fourth of July promises to be more explosive than ever this year in cities and counties where fireworks had been banned for decades.

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Desperate to find any source of untapped revenue, many cities, counties and states are scrapping decades-old restrictions on firework sales...A 65-year-old ban on fireworks in Hawkins County, Tenn., was lifted in May after a county commissioner persuaded colleagues that the sales could generate as much as $200,000 in annual permit fees and sales tax revenue.

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Only four states continue to ban firework sales: New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Delaware. Julie L. Heckman, executive director of the American Pyrotechnics Association, a trade group, said that a decade ago, sales were permitted in only about half the states. Several, including New Hampshire and Kentucky, have loosened restrictions to allow merchants to sell a wider variety, she said.

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In Pennsylvania, residents are limited to buying sparklers and a few other small-time fireworks. A TNT Fireworks store in Easton, Pa., has a separate entrance for Pennsylvania residents; out-of-state buyers shop in a much larger space behind a wall. Pennsylvania is a popular destination for buyers from New Jersey and New York, two states with bans.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/03/business/03fireworks.html