Cigarette tax supporters rally at the Capitol
Supporters of raising the state’s cigarette tax by a dollar per pack rallied on the steps of the state Capitol Thursday as part of national Kick Butts Day.
Rally organizer Dan Curran says he’s pushing for the tax increase because his father started smoking when he was in high school. Curran’s father quit when he was in his thirties but was later diagnosed with Leukemia.
“The doctors said if he had not smoked when he was younger his lungs would have been stronger and he would have been able to fight the disease that eventually killed him.”
Curran says raising the state’s cigarette tax from 0.37 cents to $1.37 would save many Georgians from suffering a similar fate.
“We will reduce the number of smokers and we’ll also safeguard the health of our young people and the emotional health of all who have lost someone to tobacco use,” he insists.
Curran had hoped the increase would be part of a state tax overhaul that passed the Georgia House yesterday, but it was not included. The legislation now heads to the Senate. If the cigarette tax is not added there, Curran and other supporters hope it will pass in future legislative sessions. But any effort to raise the tax faces opposition from some lawmakers like Republican Senator Renee Unterman. Unterman is a former cardiovascular nurse and chairs the Senate Health and Human Services Committee.
“The main reason that most of us have been opposed is because we don’t want to raise taxes of any kind, especially during a recession. The tax is a regressive move. I understand the implications on Medicaid and the cost of taking care of people who do smoke, but still it gets lumped into every other issue that wants to raise a tax,” says Unterman.
Georgia currently has the 48th lowest per pack tax in the nation.
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