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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Idaho House panel rejects cigarette tax hike

John Miller Associated Press

BOISE – A House panel Monday rejected a bid to increase Idaho’s cigarette tax by $1.25 per pack, with Republican foes branding health groups’ efforts to erect stronger barriers to teen smoking as social engineering.

Idaho’s 57-cent-per-pack tax will remain the lowest of Northwest states.

The Revenue and Taxation Committee’s vote against holding a full public hearing was 11-5, easily defeating the measure backed by groups including the American Lung Association and American Cancer Society.

Though no public testimony was taken during the hearing, there were plenty of lobbyists in the room, including from health groups that favor raising Idaho’s tax and convenience store representatives who contend that hiking the cost of cigarettes would hurt their businesses.

Republican Reps. Lenore Barrett, of Challis, and Vito Barbieri, of Dalton Gardens, argued that cajoling people to quit by boosting a legal product’s cost wasn’t acceptable.

Others, including Rep. Del Raybould, R-Rexburg, feared hiking the cigarette tax could put undue hardship on low-wage earners who would continue to smoke and have less money for their children.

Rep. Dick Harwood, R-St. Maries, doubted that smoking was really that harmful to people’s health, citing how his own mother smoked for about 82 years.

Washington’s per-pack tax is just more than $3, Utah and Montana levy a $1.70 surcharge, Oregon charges $1.18 and Nevada’s tax is 80 cents. Wyoming’s is 60 cents. Virginia has the lowest tax in the country, at just 30 cents per pack. New York has the highest, at $4.35.

Heidi Low, with the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, told lawmakers that statistics indicate that about 12,400 Idaho teens would never begin smoking and another 9,400 other smokers would quit if they had to pay an extra $1.25 per pack for the privilege.

Tobacco use costs Idaho $319 million a year in health care-related costs, with $83 million of that being borne by taxpayer-funded Medicaid, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.