Tax hit putting squeeze on smokers
TACOMA – The recession and the biggest federal cigarette tax increase in history – a 62-cents-a-pack hike April 1 – have sent Washington smokers scrambling for ways to quit.
Analysts expect the higher prices to drive cigarette consumption down by about 6.25 percent, leading to an estimated $20.9 million loss in state tax revenue and tobacco settlement money.
The price hike already has caused a boom in the stop-smoking business, and for families of smokers struggling to quit, has increased tension already stretched by the economic slump.
The federal cigarette tax rose to $1.01 a pack April 1, but many manufacturers raised prices in March in response to an expected loss in sales. A pack of premium cigarettes in Washington now costs at least $7, which adds up to more than $2,500 a year for pack-a-day smokers.
In addition to paying the federal tax, Washington’s 800,000 smokers face state taxes of $2.025 a pack, the fifth-highest rate in the country after New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Yvonne Russell is one of the smokers driven to quit by the federal tax hike. “As soon as I found out prices were increasing again, I said, ‘No more,’ ” fumed Russell, 35, a smoker since she was 18. “It’s just getting ridiculous.”
Russell said she tried to quit smoking two years ago, the last time the price jumped. Then her resolve slipped and she started up again. The latest tax increase was the last straw, she said. “It’s like, we can either eat or smoke,” Russell said. “What’s it going to be?”
For thousands of Washington residents, the answer is to stop smoking.
Managers of the state-sponsored Tobacco Quit Line said calls ran 243 percent higher in April than a year ago. The program connects smokers with “quit coaches” and offers at least a two-week supply of nicotine patches or gum (valued at $145) at no charge.
“We’ve had tremendous volume,” said Mary Kate Salley, senior vice president of the Seattle-based company, Free & Clear, which manages the Quit Line.
Last year, in the first three weeks of April, 1,231 people called the Quit Line, Salley said. In the same period this year, the number went up to 4,221.
Paul and Gretchen Stewart recently started attending a Group Health smokers’ support group in Tacoma. They were two-pack-a-day smokers until the most recent increase convinced them to quit.
“I went into a gas station to buy a pack of Marlboros, and it was $7.95,” Gretchen Stewart said. “I told the woman, ‘I can’t believe I’m paying that for cigarettes.’ That’s when I quit. I haven’t bought a pack since.”
Trying to quit has been excruciating, Stewart said.
“I’ve been smoking for 34 years – since I was 12 – so it’s very hard,” she said. “I was in the hospital in December with pneumonia. I couldn’t breathe, but I still wanted a cigarette. I’ve been pregnant three times and smoked all through all three of them. If you can’t even quit for a child of yours, it’s bad.”
Still, Stewart said she doesn’t think raising taxes is a good way to get people to stop smoking.
“I think it’s cruel,” she said. “You’re taxing the things people have for enjoyment. People should have the right to make their own decision instead of taxing the hell out of it.”