Tobacco tax plans

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

If the hospitals bankrolling a tobacco tax initiative thought they would have the playing field all to themselves, they were wrong.

On (Dec. 19), a coalition of community activists submitted their own ballot initiative to hike Missouri's tobacco tax.

The money would be used to prevent and discourage smoking and to restore health care coverage to thousands of Missourians no longer eligible for Medicaid.

If the activists can collect 150,000 signatures, there will be two competing tobacco tax proposals on the ballot in November of 2006.

The most likely result would be voter confusion and failure. We'd hate to see that happen.

Fortunately, there's still time for the two groups to build an alliance on common ground.

Both groups want to set aside 17.5 percent of the money raised by higher tobacco taxes to help prevent smoking or help smokers quit.

Anti-smoking efforts have been shortchanged in recent years, even though Missouri gets millions of dollars a year as part of a legal settlement with tobacco companies.

Both groups want to increase the amount of money doctors get for taking care of Medicaid patients, though the activists' plan isn't as generous as the hospitals' plan. Both groups say Missouri's high rates of underage smoking will decline as a result of the tax hike. Missouri's current cigarette tax of 17 cents a pack is the nation's second-lowest. ...

... The two groups' approaches and emphasis may differ, but at least they are working from a common set of facts, speaking a common language and focusing on a common problem.

Unless the two groups can compromise -- and we encourage them to continue to try -- they risk squandering an excellent opportunity to enlist voters' good will in a common cause: preventing smoking-related illnesses and helping thousands of Missourians get the health care they need.