SACRAMENTO, Calif., Feb. 19 (AScribe Newswire) -- Arkansas became the most recent state to eclipse California's tobacco tax rate when it increased its tobacco tax from 59 cents to $1.15 per pack this week. At 87 cents per pack, California now ranks 31st among the fifty states and far below the national average of $1.20. New York leads at $2.75 per pack. Twelve states have rates of $2.00 or more.
"An increase in California's tobacco tax is long overdue," said Jim Knox, Vice President, Legislative Advocacy for the American Cancer Society California Division. Forty-four other states have increased their tobacco taxes a total of 89 times since California last increased its tobacco tax in 1998 when voters approved Proposition 10. The legislature has not increased the tobacco tax since it approved a 2 cent increase to fund breast cancer research and screening in 1993.
"In the struggle to bridge a huge state budget deficit, California's state legislators and governor were unique among their counterparts nationwide in having ignored an obvious choice to help generate new revenue. An increased state tobacco tax would provide much needed new revenue; reduce smoking, especially among youth; and cut health costs to the public and the state," said Knox. According to the California Department of Public Health, smoking costs California's $8.6 billion per year in medical costs and more than $7 billion in productivity losses.
A tobacco tax increase is also needed to reverse the alarming recent increase in smoking in California. After more than a decade of decline, smoking rates in California are now on the rise - beginning in 2006 for youth and in 2007 (the most recent year for which data are available) for adults. California's model tobacco control program had driven down adult smoking rates from 23 percent in 1988 to less than 14 percent in 2006. The program is funded by five cents of the 25 cent Proposition 99 tobacco tax approved by voters in 1988. However, revenue for the program has gradually declined to the point that it is funded at less than 18 percent of the level recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"Unfortunately, the decline in funding has weakened the program to point that smoking rates in California are now increasing," said Knox. "That is why it is important for a small portion of any tobacco tax increase to be reinvested in tobacco control."
A $1.50 increase in the state tobacco tax, with 25 cents dedicated to tobacco control and the rest to the General Fund, could generate enough to fund the state tobacco control program at the level recommended by the CDC and put well over $1 billion in new revenue in the state General Fund. And there would still be states with higher tobacco tax rates.
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CONTACT: Jim Knox, 916-448-0500, jim.knox@cancer.org
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