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OPINION & EDITORIAL

More wealth for better health

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by Badger Herald Editorial Board

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Last week, Gov. Jim Doyle unveiled an initiative to increase the state cigarette tax by $1.25, bringing the total state tax up to $2.02 per pack.

The plan — part of a broader initiative to discourage smoking and improve public health in the state — would accrue an estimated $250 million per year to help cover the health-care costs the state absorbs due to smoking and supplement anti-smoking programs.

According to Gov. Doyle, tobacco-related illnesses drain nearly $500 million in Medicaid funds annually, and a University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health study found that about 20 percent of Wisconsinites smoke and 16 percent of deaths in the state are attributable to tobacco use.

While we maintain our opposition to government-imposed smoking bans, we support Gov. Doyle's proposal as a reasonable way to directly recoup taxpayer dollars.

And though increasing the tax will create an additional hardship for low-income smokers — many of whom may be college students — charging people at the register for the direct impact their habit has on state health-care funds is more practical than forcing nonsmokers to foot the ever-rising bill.

Furthermore, the increase in the cigarette tax could be enough to prevent people, especially adolescents and teens, from smoking, which would be an undeniable advantage of this measure.

Despite the obvious benefits of this proposal, there are some aspects of this plan that are not ideal, including the government regulation of a specific consumer good and the likelihood of people traveling to other states to purchase cheaper cigarettes in bulk.

Additionally, the change might be too steep to tack to the existing state cigarette tax, as Wisconsin would outpace all neighboring states — even Michigan, which currently ranks fourth in the nation.

The plan has so far been met with some bipartisan resistance, but we urge the state Legislature to consider the positive financial and public-health impact this initiative would have on Wisconsin and approve a cigarette-tax increase when it reaches the Assembly and Senate floors.

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