Subscribe to the RSS feed.HB 2122: Tobacco tax to fund tobacco and chronic disease prevention
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CHP | Posted on: April 21st, 2009
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Before The Legislature •
Policies and Laws •
Public Health
Saving Money, Saving Lives
This bill would increase tax on cigarettes and other tobacco products and distribute tax revenues to the Department of Human Services for the purposes of health care, public health and health promotion.
Raising taxes on cigarettes prevents youth from taking up smoking and reduces the amount of smoking among those who already smoke. At the same time, laws like this can create much-needed revenue to pay back the state for the costs associated with smoking and smoking-related illnesses, and fund much-needed prevention programs to help people quit. In effect, the benefit of the money goes right back to those who are paying the cost.
Statistics and perspectives that support this view:
• A 60-cent increase in the cigarette excise tax could decrease cigarette smoking among youth by more than 9 percent and prevent more than 21,000 children from becoming addicted to cigarettes.
• Smoking costs the Oregon Health Plan about $287 million per year. And that’s just a fraction of the true cost of tobacco.
• Smoking-related deaths account for nearly one quarter of all deaths in Oregon every year, including 18 deaths each day. In fact, Oregonians are 4x more likely to die from tobacco-related causes than car accidents, suicide, AIDS, and homicide combined.
• Reducing tobacco use and its preventable costs is critical to optimizing profits for local businesses and improving worker health and productivity.
What the public thinks:
• In a poll from December 2008, 67% of Oregonians surveyed said they support increasing the cigarette tax to 60-cents to fund programs that prevent or reduce tobacco use and obesity and recover smoking-related costs.
• In the same poll, nearly nine in ten Oregonians agreed that tobacco prevention and programs are important to the health and well-being of all Oregonians.
Read a letter to the Oregonian about tobacco taxes written by Thomas Aschenbrener, President Northwest Health Foundation, here.
Read more in the stories and comments on our blog, The Conversation.
Click here to find out who your state legislators are.
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