Kentucky Health News
If the latest effort to raise Kentucky's cigarette tax by $1 a pack begins to gain momentum, it can expect a big pushback from tobacco companies, if past experience is any indication.
"Many states — Missouri, Kentucky and Georgia among them — have not significantly increased their cigarette fees in decades, bowing to pressure from tobacco lobbyists and an ingrained antipathy among conservatives to raising taxes of any kind," William Wan reports for The Washington Post.
"As a result, America’s smokers are increasingly concentrated in states where cigarettes are cheap. A pack of cigarettes will soon cost $13 in New York City, where a tax hike of $2.50 was recently passed. But in Kentucky . . . you can buy that same pack for $4.77, on average."
Kentucky has the nation's second-highest smoking rate and still produces about $250 million worth of tobacco each year, though the number of tobacco farmers in the state has declined to about 4,000. The CEO of the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky cited the latter figure in announcing a campaign with many partners to get the state legislature to raise the state's cigarette tax of 60 cents a pack by at least $1 to discourage smoking and raise money for the state.
University of Kentucky Nursing Professor Ellen Hahn, who has led tobacco-control efforts in the state for many years, told the Post, “People around here just don't like the ‘tax’ word. Between that and the grip of the tobacco industry on our legislature, it’s hard to convince anyone, especially politicians.”
The big difference in state cigarette taxes, and thus cigarette prices, "is the result of a long-running war between tobacco companies and health advocates," Wan writes. "It is also, experts say, one of the biggest reasons low-tax states now suffer from high rates of cancer, heart disease, diabetes and a multitude of other tobacco-related diseases."
Wan adds, "The battle has increasingly focused on not just whether states should increase taxes, but also by how much. Health advocates regularly fight for $1 to $2 increases, while cigarette companies push to limit them to hikes of 25 to 50 cents. That has led, at times, to bizarre conflicts. Last year, when Missouri considered raising its cigarette tax for the first time in more than two decades, tobacco companies supported the increase, while health groups such as the American Cancer Society strongly opposed it. The reason? The proposed increase was so low — either a gradual 23-cent hike or a 60-cent increase over four years — that researchers concluded smokers would pay it and keep smoking."
In Montana, a bill to raise the cigarette tax died quickly, and was even abandoned by some of its sponsors, after the two main cigarette makers, Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds, "swarmed the halls of the state capitol, wined and dined Republican leaders, launched a sophisticated call-in campaign, and coached witnesses for hearings," Wan reports.
Matthew L. Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, told Wan, “It’s incredibly frustrating because, unlike so many other problems in the country, this is one case where we know the solution. Not only that. It’s a solution that’s widely popular, doesn’t cost the government anything, yet these states refuse to do it.”
Myers sees little hope for a substantial tax hike in Kentucky. “People have literally been dying from this problem for years, and that still hasn’t made a difference for those legislators,” he told Wan. “The only hope I see is the economics: when the mounting health-care costs from sick and dying smokers finally gets to a point where lawmakers have no choice but to raise the cigarette taxes.”
Cigarette makers say big tax increases are unfairly exorbitant and their industry is overtaxed, Wan reports: "They point out that from 2000 to 2014, federal and state cigarette taxes have been raised 120 times. They argue that higher taxes hit the pocketbooks of convenience store owners and smokers and amount to a regressive tax on the poor. That last argument . . . angers public-health officials, because studies show that such taxes are especially effective at reducing smoking among lower-income people. By helping them quit, advocates say, taxes help struggling families escape the economic burden that cigarette addiction puts on their monthly income.
"But the most effective argument by tobacco companies has been the libertarian one: That adults should be free to choose whether to smoke and not be prodded into quitting by a nanny state."
If the latest effort to raise Kentucky's cigarette tax by $1 a pack begins to gain momentum, it can expect a big pushback from tobacco companies, if past experience is any indication.
"Many states — Missouri, Kentucky and Georgia among them — have not significantly increased their cigarette fees in decades, bowing to pressure from tobacco lobbyists and an ingrained antipathy among conservatives to raising taxes of any kind," William Wan reports for The Washington Post.
"As a result, America’s smokers are increasingly concentrated in states where cigarettes are cheap. A pack of cigarettes will soon cost $13 in New York City, where a tax hike of $2.50 was recently passed. But in Kentucky . . . you can buy that same pack for $4.77, on average."
Kentucky has the nation's second-highest smoking rate and still produces about $250 million worth of tobacco each year, though the number of tobacco farmers in the state has declined to about 4,000. The CEO of the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky cited the latter figure in announcing a campaign with many partners to get the state legislature to raise the state's cigarette tax of 60 cents a pack by at least $1 to discourage smoking and raise money for the state.
University of Kentucky Nursing Professor Ellen Hahn, who has led tobacco-control efforts in the state for many years, told the Post, “People around here just don't like the ‘tax’ word. Between that and the grip of the tobacco industry on our legislature, it’s hard to convince anyone, especially politicians.”
The big difference in state cigarette taxes, and thus cigarette prices, "is the result of a long-running war between tobacco companies and health advocates," Wan writes. "It is also, experts say, one of the biggest reasons low-tax states now suffer from high rates of cancer, heart disease, diabetes and a multitude of other tobacco-related diseases."
Wan adds, "The battle has increasingly focused on not just whether states should increase taxes, but also by how much. Health advocates regularly fight for $1 to $2 increases, while cigarette companies push to limit them to hikes of 25 to 50 cents. That has led, at times, to bizarre conflicts. Last year, when Missouri considered raising its cigarette tax for the first time in more than two decades, tobacco companies supported the increase, while health groups such as the American Cancer Society strongly opposed it. The reason? The proposed increase was so low — either a gradual 23-cent hike or a 60-cent increase over four years — that researchers concluded smokers would pay it and keep smoking."
In Montana, a bill to raise the cigarette tax died quickly, and was even abandoned by some of its sponsors, after the two main cigarette makers, Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds, "swarmed the halls of the state capitol, wined and dined Republican leaders, launched a sophisticated call-in campaign, and coached witnesses for hearings," Wan reports.
Matthew L. Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, told Wan, “It’s incredibly frustrating because, unlike so many other problems in the country, this is one case where we know the solution. Not only that. It’s a solution that’s widely popular, doesn’t cost the government anything, yet these states refuse to do it.”
Myers sees little hope for a substantial tax hike in Kentucky. “People have literally been dying from this problem for years, and that still hasn’t made a difference for those legislators,” he told Wan. “The only hope I see is the economics: when the mounting health-care costs from sick and dying smokers finally gets to a point where lawmakers have no choice but to raise the cigarette taxes.”
Cigarette makers say big tax increases are unfairly exorbitant and their industry is overtaxed, Wan reports: "They point out that from 2000 to 2014, federal and state cigarette taxes have been raised 120 times. They argue that higher taxes hit the pocketbooks of convenience store owners and smokers and amount to a regressive tax on the poor. That last argument . . . angers public-health officials, because studies show that such taxes are especially effective at reducing smoking among lower-income people. By helping them quit, advocates say, taxes help struggling families escape the economic burden that cigarette addiction puts on their monthly income.
"But the most effective argument by tobacco companies has been the libertarian one: That adults should be free to choose whether to smoke and not be prodded into quitting by a nanny state."
from Kentucky Health News http://ift.tt/2zwdKIO
0 Response to "Latest effort for a big increase in Kentucky's cigarette tax faces a daunting assignment, based on past experience-HEALTHYLIVE"
Post a Comment