Advocates: Cigarette tax would save lives and close budget hole

By Jim Tharpe

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Health care advocates on Monday urged Georgia lawmakers to pass a dollar-a-pack cigarette tax as a way to save lives, reduce teen smoking and partially close an estimated $1 billion hole in the state budget.

The state Capitol rally by the Georgia Alliance for Tobacco Prevention kicked off a tug of war between those hoping to increase cigarette taxes and opponents who will hold an anti-tax rally Tuesday.

More than 100 health care professionals and members of the faith community showed up Monday, many of them wearing “Pass the Buck” badges with dollar bills pinned to them.

The proposed tax would raise an estimated $354 million annually and -- proponents say -- decrease the number of smokers.

“Tobacco takes a huge toll in Georgia,” said  Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, the American Cancer Society’s national deputy chief medical officer. “Thirty people in our state die every day due to tobacco.”

Lichtenfeld said there are 1.4 million smokers in the state and about 10,500 deaths linked to smoking annually.

State Rep. Ron Stephens (R-Savannah) said during the rally that he is a fiscal conservative, but he said the Legislature should pass HB 39 to help close the budget deficit and bring state cigarette taxes in line with the rest of the nation. He said the state tax in Georgia is 37 cents, compared with a national average of $1.34 per pack.

Stephens took a shot at Americans for Prosperity, the sponsor of Tuesday’s anti-tax rally, saying the group has ties to the tobacco industry.

“They ought to be ashamed,” Stephens said. “I though they were smarter than that.”

A spokesman for Americans for Prosperity  said that the Altria company paid for an email Altria sent to  adult smokers opposing the cigarette tax, but is not sponsoring Tuesday's rally.

Dr. Douglas Morris, an Emory University medical professor, said smoking damages human health, harms the environment and can lead smokers to other addictive behaviors.

Pamela Perkins, coordinator of the Interfaith Children’s Movement, urged lawmakers to act now on the tax.

“This is the right time to do what is right for the children of Georgia,” she said.