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Revenue - Lawmakers say upping per-pack tax to two bucks could net the state $76M.
Jump to full article: Salt Lake Tribune, 2009-10-24
Author: Robert Gehrke The Salt Lake Tribune
Intro: After their bid for a tobacco tax hike went up in smoke last session, crusaders for the cause are coming back again, confident that Utahns will soon be paying more for their cigarette fix.
"It's 100 percent," said Sen. Allen Christensen, R-North Ogden, who has unsuccessfully sponsored the bill for the past several years.
Christensen said he plans to push to raise the 69.5-cent per-pack tax up to $2. It would make Utah's tax on par with Arizona's and give the state the 11th-highest cigarette tax in the country. Earlier this year, Congress raised the federal cigarette tax 62 cents per pack to $1.01.
Advocates for the tobacco tax hike, like the American Cancer Society and American Heart Association, hope the higher tax would motivate 3,000 teens and 10,000 adult smokers to kick the habit and thousands more to never pick up the habit.
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