Lawmakers aim to raise tobacco tax

Even as Gov. Gary Herbert made the rounds at the state Capitol on Tuesday encouraging lawmakers to hold the line on new taxes, another message was being touted by legislators who want to see at least one tax go up — the one on cigarettes.

Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield, and Sen. Allen Christensen, R-Ogden, are reprising perennial efforts to raise one of the lowest tobacco tax rates in the country — 69.5 cents on a pack of cigarettes — high enough to make people think twice about lighting up.

The two lawmakers appeared together at a press conference plugging Christensen's proposal bumping the rate to $2 per pack, which Christensen said is big enough to change habits.

"Increasing the cost is the single most effective way to reduce use," he said. "We need to put it where it's really going to have an impact."

Ray, also revisiting a failed bill from the 2009 session, is looking for a more moderate increase, to $1.31 per pack. He, like Christensen, is motivated by tobacco-related health issues, though a tax increase would add tens of millions of dollars to state coffers.

"The reason I'm running this is not to raise money, it's to get people to stop smoking," Ray said.

Lawmakers also met Tuesday in various committee meeting to discuss the state budget they will begin assembling when the Legislature convenes Jan. 25.

Ray said Utah is spending more than $100 million yearly on Medicaid treatment that is directly attributable to tobacco use, a number that works out to more than $500 per Utah household annually. Now, Ray said, is the time for tobacco users to help pay for the medical costs that come with the habit.

"It's my intent that the increase deter people from smoking, but the revenues can help pay these extremely high costs," Ray said. "It's become a user-pay situation."

At $2 per pack, the state could expect about $54 million in new money, while Ray's proposed increase would net about $35 million.

While neither Ray's nor Christensen's bills made it to a vote last year, both say they have the support to get them passed this time around, though getting the governor's signature on that bill may be a different story.

Last week, House Speaker Dave Clark, R-Santa Clara, told the Deseret News that his party's majority caucus hasn't taken an official position on a tobacco tax increase, but he would personally vote for it.