MINNEAPOLIS-- With Election Day less than two weeks away, retailers, their employees and adult customers in California, Colorado and North Dakota are urged to vote “No” on ballot questions that would significantly increase cigarette- and tobacco-tax rates in each of these states.
California: In California, the ballot question is called Proposition 56 and would increase the California cigarette-tax rate by $2 per pack and raise the tax rate on other tobacco products proportionately in line with the higher cigarette tax.
The reasons to vote “No” on Proposition 56 include:
- Proposition 56 would raise up to $1.4 billion in new tobacco-tax revenue, a huge tax increase on a minority of the adult population that purchases tobacco products.
- Proposition 56 allocates just 13% of the new tobacco-tax revenue to help smokers quit or keep underage individuals from starting to use tobacco products.
- Proposition 56 diverts up to $600 million per year from the state’s schools. The California Constitution requires that schools receive at least 43% of any new tax-increase revenue. However, Proposition 56 was written to undermine this constitutional funding guarantee, allowing hundreds of millions of dollars a year that would otherwise go to schools to instead be diverted to health-insurance companies and other special-interest groups.
- Proposition 56 increases insurance-company profits because they are not required to accept additional Medi-Cal patients and are allowed, along with healthcare providers, to keep 82% of the new tobacco-tax revenue.
- Proposition 56 has virtually no taxpayer accountability for how health-insurance companies and other healthcare providers spend the new tobacco-tax revenue, nor are health-insurance companies subject to the new audits that Proposition 56 requires.
Click here for information on this ballot question.
Colorado: In Colorado, the ballot question is titled Amendment 72 and would amend the Colorado Constitution to increase the cigarette tax by $1.75 per pack and raise the excise tax on other tobacco products by another 22%.
The reasons to vote “No” on Amendment 72 are:
- Amendment 72 raises tobacco taxes by $315 million per year, but dedicates less than 20% of the new tax money to smoking prevention.
- More than half of the new tobacco-tax revenue generated by Amendment 72 would be earmarked for programs that have not yet been determined and 51% of the funds would go for grants with no established guidelines. This massive tax increase gives state agencies a blank check to spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year with only vague direction and little oversight.
- Colorado has received more than $1.6 billion from tobacco manufacturers under the Master Settlement Agreement that could be used for tobacco prevention and treatment, but the state has spent most of that revenue on unrelated government programs. Instead of raising tobacco taxes, Colorado should stop diverting these funds to unrelated programs and spend the revenue on helping people stop smoking and keeping underage youth from starting.
Click here for more information on this ballot question.
North Dakota: In North Dakota, the ballot question is titled Measure 4. This ballot question would increase the North Dakota state cigarette tax by $1.76 per pack and raise the tax on other tobacco products from 56% of the wholesale price.
There are a number of reasons to vote “No” on Measure 4 including:
- Measure 4 is a 400% tobacco-tax increase that gives elected officials unrestricted access to the new tax revenue and benefits those groups and organizations supporting the tax increases. Very little of the new tax money would be dedicated to anti-smoking programs. Rather, millions of dollars would be set aside with little detail over how those millions will be spent.
- Measure 4 would raise up to $70 million per year from the new tobacco taxes, and only 5% would actually be dedicated toward healthcare detection, prevention, treatment and control. The other 95% of the new tobacco-tax revenue would fund other government programs.
- Measure 4 locks in the new spending of the tobacco-tax revenue for seven years. This means it would be extremely difficult for the North Dakota legislature to change the appropriation of the tobacco-tax revenue, except by a two-thirds vote of the legislature, even if there is waste and fraud.
- North Dakota already ranks No. 1 in the country for spending on tobacco prevention and the state’s Tobacco Prevention and Control Committee has a $55.3 million surplus. This tax increase is not needed.
Click here for more information on this ballot question.
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