Public health: tobacco taxes and Internet sales--2005. End of Year Issue Brief.

Raising tobacco taxes is an action that resonates with lawmakers, public health and anti-tobacco advocates, and the majority of the electorate. The relatively broad base of support for increasing excise taxes and the potential for increased tax revenue mitigate the concerns over targeting tobacco-users--23 percent of the population--to pay for state programs and the unreliability of the tobacco tax as a permanent source of revenue. Tobacco excise taxes generated $10.2 billion, or about 1.5 percent of all states' revenue. Characterized as sin taxes or user fees and viewed as an effective method to deter price-sensitive adolescents from using tobacco, excise taxes on tobacco have increased in an unprecedented number of states since November 2001. Previously, no more than three states, on average, had increased cigarette taxes in a year. The legislative action is viewed as a politically safe and relatively easy way to raise taxes and increase revenue without incurring the wrath of anti-tax voters. During this period the increases in tobacco taxes ranged from a $0.12 per pack increase in Louisiana to a $0.75 increase in Massachusetts and Michigan. Nationwide the state tax rate per pack of cigarettes ranges from a low in South Carolina of $0.07 to $2.46 in Rhode Island. The mean tobacco excise tax for the nation is approximately $0.92. With an excise tax increase, states can channel needed funds to programs favored by voters in economically strapped times. Indeed, many of the 44 states that increased their tobacco tax announced that the revenue would permit the state to restore or at least reduce proposed cuts to Medicaid and other health programs. Excise taxes also place little administrative burden on states, since the wholesaler pays the tax directly to the state and the additional cost then is passed on to the consumer.