[media-credit name=’DEREK MONTGOMERY/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]SmokeFree Wisconsin, with the support of more than 500 organizations and representatives, proposed a $1 increase on cigarette excise taxes last Thursday to reduce youth smoking and help pay for tobacco control and the state’s Medicaid deficit.

Wisconsin last raised the tax by 18 cents in 2001 and supporters hope the state will once again raise the cigarette tax to become the 37th state to do so in the last two years.

Numerous studies show these increases in cigarette prices reduce the number of youth smokers significantly. According to the American Cancer Society, for every 10 percent increase in cigarette prices there is a decrease in youth smoking of up to the same fraction.

Head of the Assembly Health Committee, Rep. A.J. “Doc” Hines, R-Oxford, plans to introduce the bill to his committee early February.

“The reason I am introducing this bill is not about raising money for the state. We are doing this to keep kids from smoking,” Hines said.

Hines also said if profit is made from this extra tax, it would be placed into a separate account for the state.

SmokeFree Wisconsin Director Jill Ness said for every pack of cigarettes bought, $7 is added to the state’s debt. Ness added each pack of cigarettes would cost the smoker and their family an extra $41 in health-care expenses.

Maureen Busalacchi, executive director of SmokeFree Wisconsin, said Medicaid has one of the biggest deficits in the state. If legislators want to decrease spending, it makes sense to fund the 15 percent of it that goes to health care for smokers, she said.

“In some real, technical sense this money would go to Medicaid, but it frees up other money,” LaFollette School of Public Affairs professor Andrew Reschovsky said.

However, not all believe raising the levy on cigarettes is a good plan. Assembly Speaker Rep. John Gard’s office said the Peshtigo Republican is not interested in raising taxes.

Gov. Jim Doyle will not approve any bill that proposes an increase in taxes, according to the Democrat’s office. Doyle also pointed to the ability to balance the state budget without raising taxes and the hopes to do it again this year in his State of the State address earlier this month.

There are many aspects legislators need to look at when deciding how to proceed with this issue, according to Reschovsky. Legislators want to discourage people from smoking to lower future health costs in Medicaid.

If the cigarette tax increase is successful, the amount of money paying for Medicaid will eventually begin to decrease due to the lower cigarette sales, he said.

Reschovsky argued it is appropriate for smokers to pay an increase in tax applied toward Medicaid because so much of Medicaid is used for smokers’ health-care costs. This tax will burden lower-income individuals more than middle-class or upper-class individuals, according to Reschovsky.

Because of the many aspects involved in making a decision like this, Hines recommends citizens write to their local legislators in support or opposition of this bill.

The cigarette tax would affect the estimated 930,800 adults who smoke in Wisconsin, according to a statement from the American Cancer Society.