Increase the Tobacco Tax: A No-Brainer
Written by Bruce Little on June 24th, 2009In California, smoking related costs total more than $15 billion each year. Nationwide, smoking-caused health care costs total $10.28 per pack sold in the U.S. Shouldn’t smokers pay for the resulting cost to society?
Cigarette taxes could not only ease the enormous economic burden to existing public health programs that treat tobacco related illnesses, but with the current budget deficit, Governor Swarzenegger has announced a series of cuts that would hit children and families hardest – perhaps leaving California alone as the only state without a safety net for women and children.
For every $1 added to the tobacco tax, we could raise $1 billion in revenue. This increase could be enough to keep healthy families afloat and offset a large amount of cuts to education. Since California’s tobacco tax has not increased in more than a decade, and 75 percent of Californians support higher tobacco taxes, now is the time to increase the cost of cigarettes to protect our kids, their education, and their health.
Excerpted, in part, from a June 23 Calitics article by Tom Torlakson
