Group amends cigarette-tax hike initiative to add tobacco-cessation funding, in addition to tuition cut
Backers of an initiative to raise cigarette taxes while cutting Idaho state college and university tuition and fees have announced a change in their proposal: They’re lowering the tuition cut from 25 percent over two years to 22 percent, and devoting a portion of the funds that the higher cigarette tax would raise – roughly $6.5 million – to tobacco cessation programs. That would more than double the state’s investment in tobacco cessation, said William Moran, a Boise political consultant who’s working on the initiative.
Moran said the group, dubbed StopTuitionHikes.com, heard from supporters that the measure needed to provide funds for tobacco cessation too, so it made the change. The measure would raise Idaho’s 57 cent per pack cigarette tax by $1.50; Idaho’s tax now is 43rd among states, which average $1.60 per pack. It’s also the lowest among surrounding states, with Washington at $3.025 per pack; Utah at $1.70; and Oregon at $1.31.
The group says that Idaho’s growing health care costs to deal with tobacco-related illnesses are cutting into funds available for higher education, forcing tuition increases. “Students are subsidizing Big Tobacco,” the group said in a statement. “Every year, higher education is first on the chopping block to accommodate increased medical spending made necessary by tobacco related illness.”
According to the state Board of Education, Idaho’s public college tuition and fees rose 80 percent from 2004 to 2013. Meanwhile, the share of the state budget going to colleges and universities has dropped from 13.5 percent in 1994 to 8.6 percent in 2015. Tuition and fees covered 7.2 percent of the cost of an Idaho public college education in 1980; it’s 47 percent today.
For the group’s initiative to qualify for the 2016 ballot, it must gather more than 47,000 Idaho voters’ signatures, including at least 6 percent of voters in each of 18 legislative districts. The 18-districts requirement passed in 2013; no initiatives have qualified for the ballot since.
The group is planning to start the process by filing the proposed initiative with the Idaho Secretary of State’s office by the end of this week; it had planned to file it today, but postponed that for a final review of the changes in its wording. The group still will hold a rally on the state Capitol steps from 5-6 p.m. today. Once the initiative is filed, it’ll be subject to a review by the Attorney General; then, the group would have until April 30 to gather the required signatures.
