In California, a Battle Over a Plan for $1-a-Pack Cigarette Tax
California has some of the toughest antismoking laws in the country — it is illegal, in some places, to smoke in your own apartment — and boasts the second-lowest per capita smoking rate in the 50 states. But for all the disdain toward smoking, it has been 14 years since California raised its cigarette tax, a tribute to the power of the tobacco industry here and the waning of this state’s antitobacco dominance.
That may be about to change. An array of health and anticancer groups has rallied behind a ballot initiative to impose a new $1-a-pack cigarette tax to finance cancer research. And that has provoked a $47 million storm of advertisements, overwhelmingly financed by the tobacco industry, which is outspending proponents by nearly four to one to defeat the biggest threat it has faced in California in more than a decade.
An independent poll conducted May 14 to 20 signaled the power of the assault: while a majority of voters in California, where the average price of cigarettes is $5.71 a pack, say they still support Proposition 29, as it is known, the percentage has dropped markedly since the campaign began, according to the poll by the Public Policy Institute of California.
In the recent poll, 53 percent said they would support the measure, down from 67 percent in March. The vote is Tuesday.
The latest frontier in the fight against smoking is a very unlikely place: a state that has long been identified with championing restrictions on smoking. The battle has drawn national attention — Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York contributed $500,000 to the initiative, and Lance Armstrong, the bicycling champion and cancer survivor, has become its chief public advocate — reflecting the frustration of antismoking groups on their defeats here. The Legislature has voted down more than 30 attempts to raise cigarette taxes in 30 years.
