Cigarette tax hike not quite snuffed out

A cigarette tax increase to help balance the state budget hasn't been extinguished yet.

New support surfaced Monday for the tax hike on tobacco products, even in the Senate, where GOP leaders have said the proposal is off the table.

Sen. Allen Christensen, R-North Ogden, told the Deseret News that he has a list of 18 of the 29 senators willing to vote for a cigarette tax increase. Christensen, whose own bill to raise the tax never made it out of committee, said Senate GOP leadership is trying to stop the measure.

"I have the majority of votes to get it through, but leadership said, 'We don't want to do that.' It's leadership that's taken it off the table," Christensen said.

Meanwhile, Tuesday morning one House GOP leader said that the cigarette tax "was low hanging fruit" and the only question is when the tax is raised, not whether it is raised. That could come in this general session, in a special session later in 2009 called to deal, once again, with dwindling state revenues, or even in the 2010 general session a year from now.

Currently, the only boost in taxes or fees is an increase in the motor vehicle registration fee, although there was new talk among House Republicans Monday about reducing the size of the increase from $20 to just half that.

Last week, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. said lawmakers should look at boosting both revenue sources to limit the impact of the $1 billion shortfall in the budget year that begins July 1.

Now House and Senate Democrats are putting together their own budget proposal that Senate Minority Leader Pat Jones, D-Holladay, said will include increasing the tax on a pack of cigarettes from the current 69.5 cents to $1.30 as well as the $20 motor vehicle registration fee.

"We don't want to raise taxes," Jones said. "We're trying to be fiscally responsible and yet still fund some of our critical needs," including programs aimed at the elderly, disadvantaged schoolchildren and Utahns needing drug treatment.

And Senate Budget Chairman Lyle Hillyard, R-Logan, said the governor is pressing lawmakers to reduce the size of budget cuts even more. They'd already agreed to drop the size of the reductions in the upcoming budget year from 15 percent to 13.5 percent.

"I don't know," Hillyard said when asked if the cigarette tax would end up being raised. "When you get to the final crunch of the budget, all sorts of strange things happen."