Letter to the Editor: Time to tax cigarette sales

Dear Editor,

The voters of Missouri will decide Nov. 6 whether or not to pass Proposition B and raise the cigarette tax in our state from 17 cents per pack – currently the lowest in the nation, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures – to 90 cents per pack. The national average state cigarette tax is $1.49.

Health care costs caused by smoking costs Missouri taxpayers $532 million annually; according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.

Fifty percent of the new tobacco tax revenue would go to fund local schools. Twenty percent would be dedicated to tobacco use prevention and tobacco cessation programs. Thirty percent would go to public colleges and universities statewide.

Proposition B would save millions in taxpayer dollars, reduce youth smoking, help smokers quit and reduce premature births.

Smoking in Missouri costs all taxpayers; it is time to allow the smokers to carry a portion of their load and free up funds for tobacco prevention, public schools and colleges. Please vote yes on the tobacco tax/Proposition B.

—Dr. Jim Blaine, chairman of the Missouri State Medical Association’s Public Affairs Commission