CIGARETTE TAX – Here’s 15% of your Budget Shortfall

Did you know:

• For every 10% increase in the price of tobacco, there is a corresponding 6% decrease in youth tobacco use.*

• About 28.4% of all Texas high school students (362,000) smoke.*

• In Texas, smoking kills 24,100 adults a year, and ultimately will prematurely kill 486,000 Texans who now are under the age of 18. A $1 per pack tax increase will save 134,000 Texans from smoking-caused deaths and prevent 291,000 Texas children from ever becoming smokers.*

• 89% of adults who smoke today started before they turned 18.*

• A $1 per pack increase in the cigarette user fee would generate $1.5 billion in new revenue during the next biennium (Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts).

• A cigarette tax is a user fee paid only by those who smoke.

Governor Mark Schweiker (R-PA): “In the end, this isn’t about revenues, spreadsheets or Rainy Day Funds,” he said. “This is about stopping a child from buying that first pack of cigarettes or chewing tobacco. This is about saving lives.” (Pittsburg Post-Gazette June 7, 2002).

* Statistics provided by Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids