Lawmakers estimate billions of dollars can be raised from tobacco taxes to help pay for health care

Proponents of state legislation to increase cigarette taxes are still in the fight.

Following the November defeat of Prop. 86, they are championing Senate Bill 24, which would raise the cost of a pack of cigarettes by $1.90 beginning in January 2008.

Prop. 86 would have funded health care programs by adding $2.60 to the cost of a pack of cigarettes.
It’s estimated that the additional taxes from the new legislation would result in almost $2 billion for children’s health care and smoking cessation programs.

The bill was introduced by Sen. Tom Torlakson (D-Antioch) in December. A former high school teacher and track coach, Torlakson is Chair of the Health and Wellness Task Force, the state legislative committee set up to promote healthy living.

“We understand that this legislation would typically be tough battle,” said Torlakson spokesman Tom Martinez. “However, it’s the senator’s intention to work with the tobacco lobby to get this bill signed by the governor.”

Monies from the tax would go to the state legislature general fund, and from there to both new and existing children’s health and smoking cessation programs.

Those programs could be under the auspices of the state Department of Health Services but wouldn’t necessarily have to be DHS-funded efforts, Martinez said.

Taxing a product — tobacco — that already has declining revenues isn’t part of the issue, according to Martinez.

“Our objectives are two-fold: to get Californians to stop smoking and to provide quality health care for children,” he said.

The American Cancer Society, the nation’s largest voluntary health organization, doesn’t have a specific position on SB 24, said Jim Knox, vice president for legislative advocacy.

“This bill is in a very preliminary stage at this point,” Knox said. “We’re just waiting to see details on that.”

But the ACS does support increasing the tobacco tax in general.

“We do think there’s a compelling need to increase the tobacco tax in California,” Knox said.
Increasing the price of cigarettes is one of the most effective deterrents to smoking for adolescents and young adults.

Others are laws and regulations restricting tobacco industry advertising, access to tobacco, and exposure to tobacco smoke; and mass media campaigns against tobacco use, according to the National Institutes of Health.

The state’s tobacco tax — 87 cents — places it 23rd among the 50 states. California’s last increase was by 50 cents in 1999.

Adult per capita cigarette consumption in California is the lowest in the nation. As of 2004, the adult smoking rate was at a historic 15.4 percent low, according to the state Department of Health Services.
But cigarette tax revenues that fund the state’s Tobacco Control Program have decreased as a result, and certain groups still have disproportionately high rates of tobacco use.

Those include low-income state residents, military personnel, certain ethnic groups, and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender population, the DHS states.

Other proposed cigarette-related legislation addresses the effects of second-hand smoke.

Those bills are SB 4, which would prohibit smoking at state beaches or parks, and SB 7, which would ban smoking in cars carrying minor passengers.

Sheila Riley is a freelance reporter in San Francisco.

—By Sheila Riley

Posted on January 19, 2007 03:27 PM