{"id":3977,"date":"2016-11-18T20:04:33","date_gmt":"2016-11-18T20:04:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3977"},"modified":"2016-11-18T20:26:01","modified_gmt":"2016-11-18T20:26:01","slug":"california-voters-raise-cigarette-tax-by-2-a-pack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3977","title":{"rendered":"California voters raise cigarette tax by $2 a pack"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"sjm-tobacco-09xx-021\"Lost in all the hubbub over this election (and a reason why I waited a week and a half to post about it) was California voters approving a $2 a pack increase in their cigarette tax.<\/p>\n

California will go from having one of the lowest cigarette taxes in the country at $0.87 a pack to $2.87 a pack. Big Tobacco spent tens of millions to defeat prior attempts at raising California’s cigarette tax (in fact, a 2012 measure failed literally 49.9 percent to 50.1 percent), but this time it failed.<\/p>\n

According to Salon, Big Tobacco spent $71 million to defeat the California measure, which was approved with 63 percent of the vote. California has one of the lowest smoking rates in the country at about 10 percent, so why would Big Tobacco care? Because that’s 10 percent of 38 million people — basically about 3\u00a0million adults.<\/p>\n

It’s estimated (and studies have backed this up) that raising the cigarette tax by $1 a pack cuts the smoking rate by about 10 percent. So a potential 20 percent cut in those 3\u00a0million smokers (that’s 600,000 smokers), each of them no longer spending roughly $1,000 a year on cigarettes? You can see why Big Tobacco cared.<\/p>\n

The Salon article claims this measure will cost Big Tobacco $250 million a year in lost sales (at least, that’s roughly a loss of 250,000 smokers). A drop in the bucket for Big Tobacco, but enough to get their attention.<\/p>\n

Big Tobacco was able to defeat similar measures in Colorado and North Dakota, where health agencies didn’t have that much to spend against the industry. In California, health agencies spent $36 million to offset the industry’s $71 million.<\/p>\n

From the Salon article:<\/a><\/p>\n

Big Tobacco killed similar tax proposals in Colorado<\/a> ($1.75 a pack; 46 percent yes) and North Dakota<\/a> (44 cents; 45 percent) by outspending proponents by a factor of six.<\/p>\n

The lesson: You don\u2019t have to spend as much as the tobacco industry, but you need enough money to get your message out.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As an aside, California also approved legalizing pot, as did Nevada, Maine and Massachusetts. The Salon article goes on at length about the danger of Big Tobacco moving into the pot industry, something I’ve written about extensively in the past<\/a> and don’t need to rehash in this post.<\/p>\n

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

  Lost in all the hubbub over this election (and a reason why I waited a week and a half to post about it) was California voters approving a $2 a pack increase in their cigarette tax. California will go from having one of the lowest cigarette taxes in the country at $0.87 a pack … Continue reading California voters raise cigarette tax by $2 a pack<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3978,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_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}},"categories":[350,382],"tags":[688,385],"class_list":["post-3977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-california","category-cigarette-taxes","tag-california","tag-cigarette-taxes-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/sjm-tobacco-09xx-021.jpg?fit=512%2C387&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4hpEa-129","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3696,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3696","url_meta":{"origin":3977,"position":0},"title":"Another attempt being made to raise cigarette taxes in California","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"January 30, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"You might not believe this, but cigarette taxes in California are among the lowest in the entire U.S. California's cigarette tax is only 87 cents a pack, which is barely half of the average $1.50 a pack state tax in the U.S. \u00a0California has the 35th-highest state tobacco tax rate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "California"","block_context":{"text":"California","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=350"},"img":{"alt_text":"golden gate bridge","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/golden-gate-bridge.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3447,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3447","url_meta":{"origin":3977,"position":1},"title":"California Legislature finally considering raising cigarette taxes $2 a pack","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"August 18, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 I know this will surprise a lot of people, but California actually has one of the lowest state cigarette taxes in the U.S. Californians only pay 87 cents a pack on cigarettes, while the average state cigarette tax in the country is $1.60. California legislators a couple of years\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "California"","block_context":{"text":"California","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=350"},"img":{"alt_text":"The_Wharf_San_Francisco_100s_hard_box_2014_CP12016","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/The_Wharf_San_Francisco_100s_hard_box_2014_CP12016.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3881,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3881","url_meta":{"origin":3977,"position":2},"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. First the good news: California Proponents of raising California's cigarette tax from 87 cents a pack to $2.87 a pack say they have nearly twice as many signatures as needed to qualify the measure for the November 2016 ballot. They were\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "California"","block_context":{"text":"California","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=350"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/la-me-pol-sac-tom-steyer-tobacco-tax-20160516.jpg?fit=650%2C366&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/la-me-pol-sac-tom-steyer-tobacco-tax-20160516.jpg?fit=650%2C366&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/la-me-pol-sac-tom-steyer-tobacco-tax-20160516.jpg?fit=650%2C366&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3933,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=3933","url_meta":{"origin":3977,"position":3},"title":"Big Tobacco files litigation, raises $17 million to fight California tobacco tax","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"August 15, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Big Tobacco has already filed bullcrap litigation attempting to get a ballot measure removed from the November 2016 ballot that would raise the California cigarette tax by $2 a\u00a0pack.\u00a0And on top of that, the industry is planning to spend at least $17 million in order to defeat the measure. Big\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "California"","block_context":{"text":"California","link":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?cat=350"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/smoking2-698c0074376bea246f3fcf5ab527a5cc.jpg?fit=750%2C510&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/smoking2-698c0074376bea246f3fcf5ab527a5cc.jpg?fit=750%2C510&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/smoking2-698c0074376bea246f3fcf5ab527a5cc.jpg?fit=750%2C510&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/smoking2-698c0074376bea246f3fcf5ab527a5cc.jpg?fit=750%2C510&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4030,"url":"https:\/\/pepesnonsmokingpartytimelounge.com\/?p=4030","url_meta":{"origin":3977,"position":4},"title":"Philip Morris keeps trying to undermine California’s tobacco tax","author":"Pepe Lepew","date":"May 5, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Hello again from the Lounge, especially to all of our new readers from India. 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