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Toledo
Blade editorial...
Raise Ohio’s
cigarette tax
Editor’s Note: Then after
this we can tax potato chips (and other junk foods) and fast food
restaurants, and raise alcoholic beverage taxes... then we can call
them “user fees,” all in the name of “saving” health care expenses. And
when that money is spent, let’s not forget “couch potato fees” for
computers, televisions, and cable and satellite services. Hogwash!!!
Gov. John Kasich and the General Assembly have less than five months to
fill a projected $8 billion chasm in Ohio’s $50 billion budget. The
governor vows not to raise taxes to help close that gap.
But what if Mr. Kasich were to get behind a tax increase that Ohioans
say they support? And what if that tax hike not only would raise $350
million in its first year, but also would save the state $3 billion in
the long term, promote cuts in state spending — and rescue an estimated
61,500 Ohioans from premature deaths?
These would be the likely effects of doubling Ohio’s $1.25-a-pack
cigarette tax — or, more precisely, user fee. On the menu of agonizing
budget choices Mr. Kasich faces, this one is, to borrow his metaphor,
low-hanging fruit.
The cigarette-tax increase is the centerpiece of anti-smoking
legislation proposed by Investing in Tobacco-Free Youth, a coalition of
public-health and community groups in northwest Ohio and across the
state. The legislation the group advocates also would reform state
taxation and regulation of other tobacco products, and help the state
contain costs in its Medicaid health-care program.
Ohio’s cigarette tax ranks in the middle of the pack, so to speak,
among states, and has not changed in more than five years. Even a
$2.50-a-pack tax would not come close to the $9.19 in costs caused by
smoking for every pack of cigarettes sold in Ohio, the national
Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids calculates.
Ohio Medicaid spending related to smoking exceeds $1.4 billion a year.
About 43 percent of the state’s Medicaid recipients smoke — twice the
rate of Ohioans overall. Advocates say doubling the cigarette tax would
keep 137,700 young people from succumbing to the addiction, and
encourage 66,100 adult Ohioans to quit smoking.
A scientific survey of Ohio voters, conducted late last month by Fallon
Research of Columbus, found — not surprisingly — that two-thirds of
respondents opposed raising the state sales tax, and about
three-fourths opposed an income tax increase.
But nearly two-thirds said they supported a cigarette-tax increase. And
56 percent supported a doubling of the tax, provided part of the
proceeds would be used to prevent further cuts in state health-care
services.
The governor and lawmakers can do other things to modernize the state’s
tobacco laws. They can adopt high-tech tax stamps that are harder to
counterfeit, thus curbing tax evasion and illegal cigarette sales.
They can equalize the tax treatment of cigarettes and other tobacco
products, and eliminate unnecessary tobacco tax credits. Those two
steps would raise $65 million more a year for the battered state budget.
And Mr. Kasich and legislators can avoid the false economy of cutting
state aid to tobacco prevention and cessation programs. Rather, they
could use increased tobacco-tax revenues to boost funding of such
programs, to bring down smoking rates — and thus health care costs for
taxpayers, businesses, and state government.
The American Lung Association’s most recent tobacco-control report
card, released last month, gave Ohio failing grades in spending on
tobacco prevention and cessation, and a dismal “D” on its cigarette
tax. If state officials were to improve those grades, they would help
balance the budget and help cut health care costs — two of Governor
Kasich’s priorities.
They also would save lives and protect Ohio’s children. These are all
higher values than rigid adherence to unrealistic no-tax slogans.
Read it at the Toledo Blade
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