Taxing smokes could be taxing issue

Go buy a pack of smokes anywhere in Louisiana today and you’ll pay 36 cents per pack in taxes, which is well below the national average of $1.45. But that may possibly change. Stewart Gordon, president of the Louisiana chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, told the Baton Rouge Press Club earlier this month that his organization is actively supporting increasing taxes on cigarettes. With the state facing a $1.6 billion budget shortfall, the idea is sure to stimulate more than a few lawmakers. “We do support a tobacco tax,” Stewart told the press club. The American Cancer Society is also behind a letter-writing campaign because, as it argues, Louisiana cigarettes are “cheap,” which in turn increases availability and creates one of the “highest smoking rates for adults and youth” in the nation. In 2009, the last time the Louisiana Legislature conducted a fiscal session, the House Health and Welfare Committee rejected a tax hike of $1, which would have created a new state tax of $1.36 per pack of cigarettes. The proposal, though, did pass the Senate. Yet even if the tax increase did pass muster on the House side, Gov. Bobby Jindal, who has veto authority, is strongly opposed to taxes in all shapes and sizes. Public sentiment seems to track that in recent surveys. For example, in a November poll conducted by Southern Media and Opinion Research of Baton Rouge, 72% of respondents said their tax dollars are already being misused and another 62% said the state has a spending problem, not a revenue problem. Then there’s other data. According to the Louisiana Tobacco Control Program, more than 734,000 people in the state smoke cigarettes and one out of every 10 pregnant women continue smoking while carrying a child. The state Department of Health and Hospitals has even posted the following as “fact” on its Web site: “Even if it doesn’t kill, secondhand smoke can cause all types of illnesses, including lung cancer, heart disease, nasal sinus cancer, respiratory disease, bronchitis, middle ear infections, asthma and pneumonia.” – Jeremy Alford