Sin tax: November ballot issue would ask voters to raise Missouri's cigarette tax to 90 cents per pack

It's not the country's two largest tobacco producers, Kentucky and North Carolina, states that account for two-thirds of the tobacco grown in the U.S. It's not Alaska, which doesn't tax income or sales, and only 25 municipalities even levy a property tax. It's not even New Hampshire, where several factors make the average income tax in the Granite State a whopping $89 per person.

Nope, as almost everyone knows, the lowest cigarette tax in the nation is Missouri, where smokers enjoy a 17-cents-a-pack tax.

But the American Cancer Society and its supporters want that to change, with organizers scurrying to gather by May 6 the 100,000 signatures that are required to get the issue before voters. The ballot language, as certified by the secretary of state's office, calls for raising the tax by 73 cents, which would pull Missouri from the lowest but still leave it in the lower third.

"We are absolutely confident we're going to get the required number of signatures to have it on the ballot in November," said Misty Snodgrass, the association's government relations director.

Despite losses at the statewide level in 2002 and 2006, the association is confident voters will approve the tax increase this time, Snodgrass said. Raising the tobacco tax, she said, is an effective way to reduce smoking rates and helps prevent teens from starting early. While previous attempts would have poured revenue exclusively into health care, this one shares the wealth, with the expected $300 million in revenue to be shared between the state's financially struggling education system and to help fund the state's tobacco control programs.

"So it's a much broader initiative than in previous times," Snodgrass said. "Plus, I think people are becoming more and more aware of the tobacco costs on lives in our state as well as the health impact and the financial costs we incur."

Snodgrass also noted that previous losses were by narrow margins. A 2006 ballot measure, which sought to raise the tax by 80 cents per pack, was defeated with 51 percent of opposition. In 2002, when an increase of 55 cents per pack was considered, was also shot down by the same margin.

People are also more aware now, she said, that Missouri also has some of the highest smoking rates, lung cancer rates and heart disease rates in the country.

Tobacco use in the state costs an estimated $565 per household in public expenditures, claims 9,500 lives per year in Missouri from cancer and other smoking-related diseases and accounts for at least 30 percent of all cancer deaths and 87 percent of deaths from lung cancer. Each year, annual health care costs in Missouri directly caused by smoking costs taxpayers $532 million from the state's Medicaid program.

While 80 percent of the revenue would go to elementary, secondary and higher education, 20 percent would create Missouri's first general revenue funding for tobacco prevention programs, according to literature provided by the cancer association.

"Now really is the time," Snodgrass said.

The association's goals also fall in line with what several prominent Democrats have said in recent weeks. U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill recently said it's an "embarrassment" that Missouri has the lowest cigarette tax in the U.S., and Attorney General Chris Koster recently penned an op-ed calling for the state legislature to raise the tax.

Several attempts by Democratic lawmakers in the legislature this session have stalled. Republican leadership and Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon have said they aren't interested in tax increases right now. Southeast Missouri legislators, all Republicans, on Monday agreed that the tax proposal unfairly targets the state's poor and that now is not the time for increasing taxes of any sort.

Rep. Donna Lichtenegger of Jackson said with high unemployment it doesn't make sense to try to get more from people who are already struggling. She said she understands where the proposal is coming from and that it might be worth looking at later after the economy recovers.

"But, you know, people that I know that smoke are not your people who are making the big bucks," she said. "These are people who are working people who really need their jobs and don't need more taxes put on them right now. ... Right now, a lot of people are out of work and the one thing they've got is their cigarettes. I'm not going to tax somebody just because they smoke."

Sen. Jason Crowell of Cape Girardeau says that Missouri having the lowest cigarette tax isn't a point of pride or embarrassment. It just is. He doesn't support increasing the state's cigarette tax, either. If the state wants to curb smoking, it should be made illegal. If it wants to recoup some of its Medicaid losses, then recipients who test positive for nicotine should pay higher premiums and co-pays.

"Those are proactive ways that don't grow government, don't spend other people's money and don't support regressive taxation and they should be embraced," Crowell said.

Smokers in the area also said that paying around $5 a pack for brand-name cigarettes is already too high. Lila Burnes, a cashier at Cape Mart, said the store sells more cigarettes than anything else. Burnes, who smokes, doesn't think an increase would deter many smokers.

"If they're going to smoke, they're going to smoke," she said. "To me, it's already too much. I hope they don't do it. But if they do, the customers will complain, but they'll still buy them. That's what they do now. They complain. But they still buy them."

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Pertinent address:

238 N. Fountain St., Cape Girardeau, MO