Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Guam Gets First U.S. Tobacco Tax Victory of the Year
0 comments Posted by Partnership for Prevention at 3:26 PMLast month, Guam became the first U.S. tobacco tax victory of 2010, increasing its tax from $1.00 to $3.00 per pack.Approximately 88% of the revenue will fund tobacco control and public health programs in Guam, with the rest dedicated to the Guam Memorial Hospital Authority. Guam’s adult smoking rate is the highest of any U.S. state or territory at 34%. Its rate is 30% for youth.
Poll: Two-thirds of U.S. Support $1 Tobacco Tax Hike
0 comments Posted by Partnership for Prevention at 2:40 PMA new national poll finds that 67 percent of voters support a $1 tobacco tax increase. The poll also found that voters far prefer higher tobacco taxes to other options, such as other tax increases or budget cuts, for addressing state budget deficits.
The poll was released along with a report entitled: Tobacco Taxes: A Win-Win-Win for Cash-Strapped States. The report, released by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American Heart Association, American Lung Association and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The report details the revenue and health benefits to each state of increasing its cigarette tax by $1 per pack. According to the report, if every state and Washington, DC, did so, they would:
· Raise $9.1 billion in new annual revenue;
· Prevent more than 2.3 million kids from becoming smokers;
· Prompt more than 1.2 million adult smokers to quit;
· Prevent more than 1 million premature, smoking-caused deaths; and
· Save $52.8 billion in health care costs.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Raise Alcohol Tax to Finance Prevention Trust Fund, Partnership Urges Congress
0 comments Posted by Partnership for Prevention at 1:48 PMPartnership for Prevention is urging chairmen of the three congressional committees crafting the House version of a health care reform bill to raise the federal excise tax on alcoholic beverages and apply those revenues to a special fund to finance prevention and wellness initiatives.
“Higher alcohol excise taxes are an important tool in reducing the public health toll of alcohol abuse, while also providing a viable and appropriate source of funding to finance reform of our nation’s health system,” Partnership President Robert J. Gould said in a letter to Reps. Charles B. Rangel (D-NY), Henry A. Waxman (D-CA), and George Miller (D-CA). Rangel, Waxman and Miller are chairmen, respectively, of the House Ways and Means Committee, the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Education and Labor Committee.
In his letter, Gould cited a review of scientific studies by the U.S. Task Force on Community Health Services that found increased taxes or prices on alcoholic beverages are consistently related to a reduction in motor vehicle crashes and deaths, alcohol-impaired driving and death from liver cirrhosis as well as deaths from other causes. Higher alcohol taxes were also demonstrated to reduce the incidence of violence, sexually transmitted diseases, and alcohol dependence.
He also noted that federal alcohol excise taxes were last raised in 1991 and have not kept pace with inflation. Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that a 20% tax hike on distilled spirits and equalizing the tax rates on other alcoholic beverages would provide $60 billion in new revenue over a decade.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Podcast #8, with Paul Billings of the American Lung Association
0 comments Posted by Partnership for Prevention at 12:09 PM
Tobacco is still the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S. today, but we may have some real opportunities to make substantial progress in changing that. Increases in federal and state tobacco taxes combined with mass education campaigns are sending a record number of people to telephone quitlines seeking advice on how to stop smoking. We’ll be discussing these factors with Paul Billings, Vice President for National Policy and Advocacy at the American Lung Association.
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