Tobacco.org

• Voters say yes to raising tobacco taxes 

Beginning Jan. 1, the tax on cigarettes will increase to $1 a pack from 30 cents. Other tobacco products will see an increase to 45 percent from 12 percent, following voters' overwhelming passage of Proposition 2 in Tuesday's municipal elections.

"I think we had a lot of smokers who voted for it. A majority of smokers want to quit. A majority of smokers don't want to smoke at any price," said Matt Felix, director of Juneau's office of the National Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependence. . . .

The unofficial vote tally was 3,366 to 2,156.

Felix's agency was the impetus for the tax hike. In July, it asked the Juneau Assembly to raise taxes on cigarettes and tobacco products to bring the city in line with tobacco taxes elsewhere in the state. The hike is expected to make a particularly acute impact on youth smokers and potential youth smokers, which voter Tom Rutecki said got him behind the tax bump.

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