Hoosiers support cigarette tax hike

INDIANAPOLIS -- Sixty-two percent of Indiana registered voters support increasing the state's cigarette tax by $1 per pack if the money was used to fund health programs and smoking cessation and prevention initiatives, according to a poll released Monday.\nThe statewide telephone survey of 500 people conducted Jan. 10 through Jan. 11 showed that 36 percent opposed a $1 per pack increase.\nRepublican Gov. Mitch Daniels has asked lawmakers to increase the cigarette tax of 55.5 cents per pack by at least 25 cents, with the additional revenue and newly leveraged federal dollars being used to provide health insurance to more low-income Hoosiers and immunizations for children.\nThere is bipartisan backing in the General Assembly for expanding health care coverage, but there has been no groundswell of support so far for increasing the cigarette tax or any tax. Many Republicans have signed pledges against any tax increases, and Democratic House Speaker Patrick Bauer has said that although the House will hold a hearing on a cigarette tax increase, its prospects of passing are uncertain.\nDaniels has said that steps must be taken to improve the health of Hoosiers. Indiana has the second-highest rate of smoking in the nation (27 percent of adults last year), the third-highest rate of cancer, and rates of obesity and heart disease that are among the top 12.\nAn estimated 9,800 adults in Indiana die each year from smoking, Daniels said, while more than 10,000 youths under 18 take up the habit. Medicaid, the state and federal health program for the poor, disabled and some seniors, spends more than $400 million in Indiana each year on smoking-related health care costs.\nThe survey was conducted jointly by Virginia-based Public Opinion Strategies and Washington D.C.-based Mellman Group on behalf of the American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, American Lung Association and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.\nLive interviewers made the calls for the poll, which had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.\nThe four organizations that commissioned the poll are part of a coalition of 28 groups asking lawmakers to raise the 55.5 cents cigarette tax, which is 36th lowest in the nation.\n"Fifteen years of research has shown that increasing the tobacco tax will encourage some smokers to quit or smoke less, and deter others -- especially our youth -- from taking up the deadly habit in the first place," said Danielle Paterson, senior director of advocacy for the American Heart Association.\nThe groups behind the poll said a $1 increase would dissuade 89,800 youngsters from becoming smokers, cause nearly 53,000 smokers to quit, produce $2.7 billion in long-term health care savings and raise more than $352 million in new state revenue per year.\nThe survey also showed that 46 percent would "definitely vote" for a candidate who supported a $1 increase, and another 35 percent said the issue would make no difference in their vote.\n"I believe that one thing that this points out is that there is not a large degree of political risk, whatever your political party -- whether you're a Democrat, Republican or Independent legislator -- in supporting a tobacco tax increase," said Nathan Henry, a pollster with The Mellman Group.