{"id":3754,"date":"2016-02-25T04:02:39","date_gmt":"2016-02-25T04:02:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3754"},"modified":"2016-02-25T04:03:43","modified_gmt":"2016-02-25T04:03:43","slug":"west-virginia-smoking-rate-29-9-percent-senate-passes-cigarette-tax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3754","title":{"rendered":"West Virginia — smoking rate 29.9 percent — Senate passes cigarette tax"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"327998b17e90494767b58df08ec4837c\"<\/p>\n

I have no idea if this bill is going to pass, but this in itself is a pretty amazing development.<\/p>\n

West Virginia, a solidly red Republican state (Obama got less than 30 percent of the vote in 2012) and \u00a0either the No. 1- or No. 2-ranked smoking state in the nation (in the last survey, West Virginia was No. 2 at a staggering 29.9 percent smoking rate, just a tick behind Kentucky.), passed a pretty significant cigarette tax increase in the State Senate.<\/p>\n

West Virginia’s cigarette tax is one of the lowest in the nation at 55 cents a pack, no surprise in such a conservative state with such a high smoking rate. The average state cigarette tax in the nation is about $1.50 a pack.<\/p>\n

A bill was introduced in the W.Va. Legislature to raise the cigarette tax to $1 a pack, a pretty modest increase that would leave W.Va. still well below the national average tax. However, that bill, proposed by the governor, was amended to raise the tax by $1 a pack to $1.55 a pack, right around the national average.<\/p>\n

In a Republican-dominated State Senate, the bill passed by a margin of 26-6. Wow. Republicans favoured the bill 12-6, joining 14 Democrats in favour. That blows me away.<\/p>\n

\"m5935a3f2\"
Smoking rates in the U.S. West Virginia is pitch black.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The tax increase would raise an estimated $115 million and would help West Virginia balance a severely strapped budget.<\/p>\n

In my mind, more importantly, the tax increase would likely make a dent in West Virginia’s shockingly high smoking rate. Studies have shown that a $1 a pack cigarette tax effectively lowers the smoking rate by 10 percent. It actually does help encourage smokers to quit to hit them in the pocketbook.<\/p>\n

From\u00a0a\u00a0Charleston, W.Va., Gazette article:<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Sen. Tom Takubo, R-Kanawha, a physician, noted that 10 times as many West Virginians die from tobacco-related illness as die from narcotics overdoses and said the existing 55-cent-a-pack tax is not enough to motivate smokers to quit.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to hit somebody hard enough in the pocketbook that they say, ‘Now, I’ll quit,’ \u201d Takubo said.<\/p>\n

While tobacco taxes are sometimes seen as inordinately burdensome on the poor, Takubo said smokers spend an average of $4,700 a year on cigarettes, money he suggested would greatly benefit low-income families.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s a big number that can help out a lot of people \u2014 that’s cash,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"joe-pic-4\"
West Virginia also has one of the highest lung cancer rates in the U.S.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/blockquote>\n

Not coincidentally, West Virginia also has one of the highest lung cancer death rates in the nation, (also partly because of the state’s coal industry.).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
The governor is apparently on board with the cigarette tax increase, but I have no idea if the tax increase will pass in West Virginia’s State Assembly. As I pointed out before, the state’s budget is extremely tight and they’d be pissing away $115 million a year in revenue rejecting the tax.<\/div>\n
\"cigarette<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
I can’t keep track in every single state, but I know cigarette tax bills are making their ways through legislatures in\u00a0several states, including Indiana,<\/a> Louisiana and California. California plans a state ballot measure to raise its ridiculously low 87 cents a pack cigarette pack. A similar bill in California barely failed a couple of years ago, literally by a few thousand votes, after Big Tobacco poured millions of dollars into defeating it.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have no idea if this bill is going to pass, but this in itself is a pretty amazing development. West Virginia, a solidly red Republican state (Obama got less than 30 percent of the vote in 2012) and \u00a0either the No. 1- or No. 2-ranked smoking state in the nation (in the last survey, … Continue reading West Virginia — smoking rate 29.9 percent — Senate passes cigarette tax<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3755,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[382,772],"tags":[385,773],"class_list":["post-3754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cigarette-taxes","category-west-virginia","tag-cigarette-taxes-2","tag-west-virginia"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/327998b17e90494767b58df08ec4837c.jpg?fit=236%2C356&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4hpEa-Yy","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3881,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3881","url_meta":{"origin":3754,"position":0},"title":"Cigarette tax proposals in California, Missouri, West Virginia","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"May 22, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Good news, bad news on the cigarette tax front. 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