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But there is one glaring exception: the tobacco tax. Poll after poll show a majority of Americans support raising taxes on tobacco products. Why? Because they understand the tremendous benefits that accrue from making tobacco products more costly for consumers: • Fewer kids and adults lighting up and chewing. • Reduced health-care costs, often cancer-related, for state governments. • Increased revenues for state-funded health-care programs. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids has found that "every 10 percent increase in the price of cigarettes will reduce youth smoking by about 7 percent and overall cigarette consumption by about 4 percent." A 36-year study comparing cigarette prices with consumption demonstrates a strong correlation between the two. When the sale price for tobacco products increases, consumption decreases. "In every single state that has significantly raised its cigarette tax rate, pack sales have gone down sharply," according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. Hopefully these factors will inform the debate currently under way in Tallahassee. A bill in the Florida Legislature would increase the state's excise tax on tobacco products by $1: from 34 cents a pack, the sixth lowest in the nation, to $1.34. The national average for state cigarette taxes is $1.12. Because this issue already has been debated in dozens of other states — many of which have enacted tobacco-tax hikes — all of the arguments against increasing the tax are now being resurrected at the state Capitol. Yes, tobacco sellers and convenience stores in Florida located near border states that have lower excise taxes, such as Georgia (37 cents a pack) and Alabama (43 cents a pack), may lose some business. And yes, increasing the tax on cigarettes would disproportionally affect the poor and people in lower income brackets. But this is one of those issues that must be weighed against the greater good. And the benefits of increasing the excise tax far outweigh the negative consequences. Instead of implementing a steep, $1-per-pack tax increase, the Legislature should phase in the increase over several years. While this will result in less revenue, it would lessen the financial blow for tobacco sellers and convenience stores, and tobacco-users who are financially disenfranchised. Additionally, all of the revenue generated by the higher excise tax should be earmarked specifically for health-care programs. A Senate version of the bill passed last week by the Health Policy Committee contains this important provision. That's not enough. In return for public support for this tax, legislators must ensure that new revenues enhance health-care programs, not just merely allow lawmakers to free up those dollars to be spent somewhere else. Floridians do not need another shell game called the Florida Lottery, whose revenues did not enhance education, but supplanted dollars the Legislature once appropriated. It has been nearly two decades since Florida raised the tax on tobacco products. The Sunshine State desperately needs the money a higher tax would generate. But the more important issue here is one it's impossible to reduce to a financial calculation: the tens of thousands of lives that will be saved when people quit using tobacco products. © Copyright 2006 by CigarettesOn.Com |
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