Group Wants Tax Hike on Cigarettes

A new statewide group is calling for a cigarette tax hike and policy experts say Nevada could see $85 million in one year if the hike is approved.

Smokers could be looking at paying an extra $1.20 to smoke a pack of cigarettes. The Health Investment Partnership, or HIP, is a coalition of people and organizations in the public and private health sectors. HIP introduced a new study Tuesday detailing how a health impact fee would dramatically lower the state deficit, decrease the burden of health care costs, and ultimately save lives.

"We estimate that over 16,000 adults would quit smoking in response to the price increase. Over 20,000 kids would be deterred from taking up smoking and in the long run, it would save the state over a half a billion dollars on healthcare costs from smoking," said economic policy expert Frank Chaloupka.

The suggested $1.20 health impact fee would apply to all other tobacco products, not just cigarettes. HIP is calling on lawmakers to adopt the fee and allow it to rise with inflation. The group believes teenagers would benefit the most by increasing the cost of a pack of cigarettes.

"You're starting to take that out of the range of a lot of teenagers," said Dr. John Ruckdeschel, CEO of the Nevada Cancer Institute. "The cigarette costs keep going up and up and they can't do the other things they want to do. After a while, some of them get the idea and stop."

Right now, the state cigarette tax on one pack is 80 cents, which is lower than most states. HIP says tobacco users are costing Nevada more than a $500 million a year in healthcare costs.