Missouri Voters Pushing Cigarette Tax Hike

A group of Missourians seeking to raise Missouri’s lowest-in-the-nation state cigarette tax are expected to submit signature this week to the state that would put the issue on the November ballot, the Kansas City Star reports. The proposal calls for raising Missouri’s 17 cents per pack cigarette tax to 90 cents, with the additional money used to fund education and smoking prevention and cessation. Taxes on other tobacco products would also increase.

 Supporters of the measure say the goal is improving public health by preventing young people from starting smoking, while getting adults to stop. “Most people are looking for a reason to quit,” said Misty Snodgrass of the American Cancer Society. “Tobacco and cigarettes are not an essential life benefit, it's not like rent or food. So people make those choices whenever it does become more expensive.” In preparation for the tobacco tax ballot measure, which is due in the secretary of state’s office May 6, a trial judge in Cole County has already scheduled a legal challenge to the proposal.

 Assuming the measure clears the signature challenge and legal hurdle, this would be the third time this decade that a proposal to increase tobacco taxes has appeared on the statewide ballot. Previous efforts were defeated in 2002 (55-cents per pack increase) by 31,000 votes and 2006 (80 cents per pack increase) by 61,000 votes. Ron Leone, executive director for the Missouri Petroleum Marketers & Convenience Store Association, said the existing federal, state and local government taxes paid on cigarettes is already sufficiently high, adding that focusing on just the state tax of 17 cents can be misleading.

At the same time, he endorsed a plan that would gradually increase the state cigarette tax to 33 cents after four years. He said maintaining low taxes enables the state to attract customers from other states, who purchase tobacco products and other items from Missouri cigarette retailers. “We believe being a low-tax state is a good thing,” Leone said. “We're not embarrassed by the fact that we're the lowest tobacco taxed state in the country. We don't have a problem with that. We think that's a good thing.”