Smart Tan Vice President Joseph Levy took part in a dozen media interviews in the last week of June about the new 10 percent luxury tax on indoor tanning services and assisted Smart Tan members nationwide who conducted interviews in their communities as well.

Levy and Smart Tan Chairman Matt Russell were guests at a rally hosted by Nebraska tanning facility owners July 1 on the capital steps in Lincoln, Neb. Both Levy and Russell joined Nebraska tanning business owners and state elected officials — including Gov. Dave Heineman — in speaking out against the 10 percent luxury tax on tanning services that took effect July 1 as part of U.S. Health Care Reform.

“Nobody wanted this tax,” Levy told Omaha radio station KFAB in an 8-minute interview preceeding the Nebraska rally July 1. Levy pointed out that most representatives would not have supported the 10 percent tax on small businesses had it not been horse-traded into the precarious Health Care Bill in a midnight, back-room deal engineered by U.S. Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.). Once in the bill, no one wanted to touch it for fear of derailing the slim majority needed to pass Health Care Legislation by a 60-40 vote in the U.S. Senate.

Levy has pointed out that the Tan Tax actually raised the price of the health care bill by $3.3 billion — as the 5 percent Botox Tax originally in the bill would have raised $5 billion over 10 years — $3.3 billion more than a tanning tax will raise.

Click here to listen to Levy’s interview on Omaha radio station KFAB:

Click here to listen