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Eye on Boise: Cigarette tax boost initiative now sets aside portion for stop-smoking programs

Backers of an initiative to raise Idaho’s cigarette tax while cutting 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 they’re devoting a portion of the funds that the higher cigarette tax would raise – roughly $6.5 million – to stop-smoking 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 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 2004-13. 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-district requirement passed in 2013, and no initiatives have qualified for the ballot since.

The group had planned to start the process by filing the proposed initiative with the Idaho secretary of state’s office last week, but the changes have delayed that. Wording is now being finalized, and Moran said it’s likely to be filed in the next week.

Once the initiative is filed, it will be subject to a review by the attorney general, then the group would have until April 30 to gather the required signatures.

New F&G commissioners

Gov. Butch Otter has named two new members to the Idaho Fish and Game Commission: Derick Attebury of Idaho Falls, who succeeds Kenneth Anderson of Rigby, and Daniel Blanco of Moscow, to succeed Fred Trevey of Lewiston. Both of the previous commissioners’ terms had expired. If the appointees are confirmed by the Idaho Senate in January, they’ll serve four-year terms.

Attebury is an irrigation company operations manager and an avid hunter and angler. Blanco is a tent salesman and former career services director for the University of Idaho who has a master’s degree in public administration from the University of South Dakota.

“It’s always gratifying when engaged and concerned citizens step up to take on the responsibilities of managing our precious public resources,” Otter said in a statement. “Few duties are more important to Idahoans, and few positions in state government are more demanding. Derick and Daniel are committed to helping advance Fish and Game’s mission of preserving, protecting, perpetuating and managing Idaho’s wildlife for future generations of sportsmen.”

Revenues up

Idaho state tax revenues in August came in 3.4 percent above forecasts, largely due to strong collections in individual income and sales taxes, the two largest categories of state taxes. The state’s tax revenues for the month were 6.4 percent higher than the previous August.

That puts total revenues for the fiscal year to date, which started July 1, at 1.4 percent above forecasts and 6.3 percent over last year.

Counselor helps more kids ‘go on’

One North Idaho school district has raised its “go-on” rate, the rate at which its high school graduates go on to some form of higher education, from 50 percent to 83 percent since a local private foundation hired a college guidance counselor for the district, Idaho Education News reports.

Panhandle Alliance for Education was formed in 2002 to benefit the Lake Pend Oreille school district in Sandpoint. Since then, the group has amassed a $3.5 million endowment and puts roughly half a million a year into the district, for everything from academic programs to classroom equipment.

“What we are doing is not really unique – what is unique is that a small town in Idaho is able to pull this off,” said Marcia Wilson, the foundation’s executive director.

Betsy Russell covers Idaho news from the state capital in Boise. She can be reached at bestyr@spokesman.com or (208) 336-2854.

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