May 29, 2012
May 25, 2012
May 24, 2012
Because current cigarette taxes are so low in California, cigarettes are cheaper here than in the US as a whole.
According to The Tax Burden on Tobacco (page 182) in 2010 the average pack of cigarettes in California costs $5.374 compared to$5.554 for the US as a whole. The low price in California reflects the tobacco companies' success in keeping taxes in California; total taxes only comprise 35.0% of the price of a pack of cigarettes compared to 44.2% for the US as a whole.
Cheap cigarettes promote smoking.
Passing Prop 29 would raise the fraction of the price that is tax to a bit above the national average, 45.2%, assuming Philip Morris and Reynolds pass the tax through to consumers.
Of course, the price increase might be more than the $1 tax increase because the cigarette companies often increase the wholesale price at the same time taxes go up so the companies can maintain or increase revenues despite declining consumption. That allows the companies to get the cash while smokers blame the government.
Pretty clever.
May 24, 2012
Once upon a time, right after the voters saw through essentially the same campaign that Philip Morris and Reynolds ran in 1988 and passed Prop 99, California had the largest most aggressive tobacco control program in the country.
According to a report in the MMWR released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, California is in the bottom half of states for tobacco control funding, spending only 17% of of what CDC recommends for a state its size, making it 26th in terms of investment in tobacco control. (That is why, absent 29 passing, smoking will start increasing in California over the next few years.)
May 23, 2012
The widely-respected nonpartisan Public Policy Policy Institute of California just released a poll showing that Prop 29 is winning with 53 percent of voters planning to cote yes compared to 42 percent "no." While this is about a 10 point drop in the yes vote compared to where things were before Philip Morris and Reynolds dumped $40 million into California trying to bury the campaign, the fact that 29 is still ahead shows that most of the people are still not buying the lies.
In addition, while the Yes campaign has been on the air with its ads, it has had nowhere near the money that the tobacco companies have dumped into the campaign. Things are going to get a little more balanced in light of the big contribution the American Cancer Society just made, which, combined with other donations, has allowed the Yes side to get its media up around the state.
The San Jose Mercury News reported a sneaky trick that the cigarette companies used to try and make it look like somebody other than them was supporting the No campaign: