State budget guts quit-smoking efforts
One provision in the new state budget is an increase in taxes on cigarettes by 75 cents per pack. This follows a $1-per-pack increase that took effect on Jan. 1, 2008.
In the new budget, though, lawmakers have slashed in half state funding for smoking cessation programs.
From the start, Gov. Jim Doyle spoke of the increase in the cigarette tax as not so much a budget issue as a public health measure, to work in conjunction with a statewide workplace smoking ban. Revenues were to be invested in smoking cessation programs that would, along with the higher prices, get more people to kick their addictions for good.
Cigarette taxes are sharply regressive, as smokers tend to be poorer on average than non-smokers. This doesn’t mean that cigarette tax increases cannot be a part of smart public health initiatives — they can be, and should be. But evidence shows that having high taxes by itself doesn’t reduce smoking rates. It must be part of a robust regime of cessation programs — including the state’s Quit Line, provision of free stop-smoking medications and youth tobacco-prevention programs.
With the cuts to the 2009-10 budget, the state now funds smoking cessation at only 10 percent of what is recommended by the Centers for Disease Control. That is simply inexcusable.
In February, soon after Doyle’s initial budget presentation, we wrote that the new cigarette tax, on top of the $1 hike in 2008, “has the feel of a budget patch masquerading as a public health initiative.”
We now know this was exactly what it was.
Our eyes are open about the difficulty of filling a $6.6 billion state budget deficit. For all the messy, sometimes-ugly sausage-making that went into the process, the budget that emerged was one we largely support.
Conservative critics of the budget called for greater cuts, usually without specifics. But the cuts Doyle and the Legislature made were real and deep — a $3 billion cut from state agencies. Those are massive reductions.
They still left open a multibillion-dollar shortfall, and legislators looked for alternative ways to raise revenues, including tax and fee increases. The cigarette tax increase is projected to bring in $300 million in new money.
But at the same time, tobacco prevention and cessation programs are being cut to just $6.75 million. That makes very little sense.
As of 2008, Wisconsin’s smoking rate was 21.7 percent for men and 18.2 percent for women, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. These were higher than the nationwide averages of 20.7 percent for men and 16.2 percent for women.
On the other hand, smoking rates in Wisconsin, as in the nation, have been trending down for some time. About one year ago in June 2008, Doyle’s office announced that smoking among Wisconsin adults had reached an all-time low — less than 20 percent, compared with 24 percent in 2000.
Those are good trends, and for the sake of public health they are the direction in which we want Wisconsin to move. But simply raising cigarette taxes will not be enough to do this. Cessation and prevention programs are a vital part of a smart public health strategy. Slashing their budgets is not the way to accomplish this.
