Tobacco tax increase: Quit or buy out of state?

SALT LAKE CITY — When the federal cigarette tax went up 61 cents last year, the Utah Tobacco Quit Line was flooded with calls from smokers who were ready to stop.

Now, even more tobacco users are expected to call thanks to a state tax increase adding another $1 to the price of a pack, starting Thursday.

"The great thing about this tax is you don't have to pay it. You can quit," said David Neville, spokesman for the state Department of Health's Tobacco Prevention and Control Program.

That's what the additional staff manning the Quit Line phones will be ready to explain, he said. And it will be the message of a new advertising campaign that will roll out later this summer.

Using sticker shock to get Utahns to stop smoking — or not to start — was what the chief backer of the only tax increase passed by the cash-strapped 2010 Legislature intended all along.

Sen. Allen Christensen, R-North Ogden, said he's just sorry the increase is only $1.

"It will not stop the habit," he said. "That would take more than I could ever get through the Legislature."

The tax hike, which boosted the state tax on a pack of cigarettes to $1.70, is expected to raise more than $43 million in the next 12 months. Lawmakers approved it only after being threatened with cuts in public education.

Even Gov. Gary Herbert, who at one point had pledged to veto any tax increase, allowed the bill to go into effect without his signature rather than see spending for schools slashed.

"I don't care about the dollars. It's about the health benefits," said Christensen, a pediatric dentist. He's hoping to see about 15 percent of the state's 190,000 smokers give up the habit.

Better yet, Christensen said, the increase means more younger Utahns will be priced out of starting smoking. "They'll never take up the habit, because they just plain can't afford it," he said.

Legislative fiscal analysts calculated that, as a result of the increase, Utah sales of cigarettes and other tobacco products would drop about $54 million from a projected $280 million in the coming budget year.

Opponents of the tax hike warn the lost sales could be much higher, but not because fewer Utahns are smoking. Instead, they fear smokers will head to surrounding states with lower tax rates to make their cigarette purchases, hurting Utah businesses.