Vt. anti-tobacco lobby wants $1-a-pack tax hike

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Puffing on a Marlboro outside a coin-operated laundry, 19-year-old Dan Blanchard was quick to say how he feels about a plan to add a $1-a-pack tax on cigarettes bought in Vermont.

"That wouldn't be cool," he said. "That would be insane."

Vermont's anti-tobacco forces say otherwise.

They're pressing lawmakers to boost the state's per-pack tax — now $2.24 — in hopes of offsetting planned budget cuts to anti-tobacco efforts, raising more money for the state and discouraging people from lighting up.

Representatives of the Coalition for a Tobacco Free Vermont joined with officials of the American Lung Association, the American Heart Association and the Vermont Low Income Advocacy Council on Tuesday to propose the increase, which they say would raise $10.2 million in new revenue for state government, drive some smokers to quit and save millions in health care costs.

Gov. Peter Shumlin has proposed a $2.1 million cut in the state's tobacco control efforts. The anti-tobacco lobby says nearly five times that amount could be raised — and some tobacco-control programs spared — by slapping $1 more onto Vermont's per-pack tax.

The hike would prompt 2,000 smokers to quit and prevent 3,600 children from taking it up, according to the Coalition for a Tobacco Free Vermont. It would raise money for the state, which is facing a budget shortfall of about $176 million for the fiscal year starting July 1, and reduce Medicaid expenditures, according to coalition coordinator Tina Zuk, of Colchester.

"It's a win-win for everyone," said Zuk. "The primary role of the tax is not the revenue, although I think to some that sweetens the deal. Where we're going is that from a public health perspective, it's the single best way to get youths not to smoke and to get smokers to quit."

State Rep. George Till, D-Chittenden, a physician who's among bill's sponsors, says using tobacco is the single most preventable cause of death and disease in Vermont.

Now, cigarettes sell for about $6.50 a pack in Vermont, and about 17 percent of adults smoke.

The Vermont Grocers' Association opposes the increase, which it contends will drive smokers to buy somewhere else, not quit.

"No one wants to see increased smoking," said Jim Harrison, president. "We want to see decreases. However, just changing the tax rate, it has other unintended consequences. We've seen it time and time again, especially when small geographic states like Vermont increase the rate. It shifts sales to neighboring state, the Internet, Indian reservations.

"We think we've decreased (smoking), but we really haven't, and what we really ended up doing is losing commerce in Vermont, and some of that tax revenue," Harrison said.

Shumlin agrees.

Vermont state government has reaped about $4.9 million more in cigarette tax revenues in this fiscal year than it forecast, mainly because of price-conscious smokers from neighboring New York who head east to buy for less, according to state Agency of Human Services Secretary Doug Racine.

In New York, the state tax on a pack is more than $4.

"We wish people weren't doing this, and we know it contributes to higher health care costs, but we're seeing New Yorkers come into Vermont to buy cigarettes," Racine said.

Blanchard, who's been smoking since he was 15 and goes through about a pack a day, said paying more wouldn't get him to kick the habit.

"If I'm going to smoke, I'm going to smoke. I might start buying cheaper cigarettes, though," he said.