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[ INDUSTRY NEWS]
California coalition calling for monumental tax hike
In December, a coalition of California health organizations announced that it is working to place a cigarette tax hike on the November ballot. That hike, if passed, would quadruple the state's current cigarette excise tax from 87 center per pack to $3.47 per pack, which would be the highest in the nation.
Coalition members include the American Lung Association of California, the American Heart Association and the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, among others.
The Associated Press wrote that revenue from the higher tax would be directed to various health programs, including cancer screening, prevention and research, low-cost children's insurance, and tobacco education and cessation.
The coalition's plan would also provide $20 million annually to help support local law officials' efforts to better enforce "tobacco control" laws, which critics indicate would help officials combat the "expected rise" in black-market cigarettes.
Craig Fishel, spokesman for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Winston-Salem, N.C., told the AP that increasing California's cigarette tax per pack by such a large amount might lead some people to quit smoking. However, he said what likely will happen is that people will look for other means to purchase their cigarettes, "usually from other states or on Indian reservations where excise taxes aren't enforced," he said.
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