Wyoming Tribune Eagle calls for increase in tobacco tax

WE BELIEVE: For a variety of reasons, it is important for state legislators to pass a bill to raise the tobacco tax during the 2017 legislative session , which starts Jan. 10.

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If a tornado, severe flooding or another natural disaster affected Wyoming, state legislators would find the money to help residents recover.

If, God forbid, Wyoming experienced a rash of school shootings, those same legislators would be calling for increased security measures and finding ways to fund them.

Yet year after year, state lawmakers fail to take action against a threat that’s just as serious. In fact, it kills more people each year in the Cowboy State than those two horrible events likely would combined.

An estimated 2,920 Wyoming residents will be diagnosed with cancer this year, and more than 1,000 will die from it, according to the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network.

But because those victims usually die slow, painful deaths, not dramatically, they don’t get the same attention – from legislators, or even, to be totally honest, from us in the media.

Yet time and time again, reports like the Cancer Action Network’s recent “How Do You Measure Up?” try to get our leaders’ attention. They identify solutions to this problem. Yet our elected officials would rather listen to lobbyists than face the cold, hard facts.

Though it wouldn’t address all types of cancer, the best place to start would be to raise the state’s excise tax on cigarettes, cigars, smokeless tobacco and all other tobacco products. The average state cigarette excise tax in the United States is $1.65 per pack. Wyoming’s current rate of 60 cents ties it for eighth lowest with Kentucky.

Study after study – including this latest one – shows that raising such taxes can save lives, dramatically reduce high tobacco-related health-care costs and generate much-needed revenue.

Sadly, that last benefit is where advocates for a tobacco tax hike may gain some traction this year. After all, with the state experiencing a minerals industry bust, legislators are scrambling to find ways to bring in more money.

Jason Mincer, government relations director in Wyoming for the Cancer Action Network, estimates that raising the cigarette tax by $1.25 per pack would raise roughly $27 million annually – or $54 million per biennium, since that’s how our state does its budgets.

Under current state law, 85 percent of tobacco tax revenue goes to the state’s general fund, while the remaining 15 percent goes to municipalities based on where the products were sold. Using Mr. Mincer’s estimates, $23 million would flow into state coffers.

Gov. Matt Mead and the Legislature’s Joint Appropriations Committee reduced funding in the 2017-18 biennium budget earlier this year for important tobacco cessation, cancer screening, substance abuse treatment and other related programs. The directors of the Wyoming Department of Health and Department of Corrections would argue that some of the tobacco tax hike should be used to restore funding to those efforts, and we agree.

Some will say that so-called “sin taxes” hurt low-income people the most. We believe the tobacco tax increase must be large enough to make consumers think twice about whether the product is worth the expense.

Our state legislators wouldn’t fail to respond to a natural disaster, school shootings or any other desperate need. It’s time they take cancer prevention just as seriously.