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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Heart Association: Upping WV Cig Tax Good for Kids and the Economy

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Monday, February 21, 2011   

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - The state legislature is looking to add a dollar to the tax on a pack of cigarettes. That would bring West Virginia's tax rate from one of the lowest in the nation to close to the national average.

Chuck Hamsher, government relations director for the American Heart Association in West Virginia, says that would stop nearly 20,000 young people from getting hooked into a lifetime habit. He says the state currently has the second-highest rate of youth smoking in the country.

"What's even more startling is that 32 percent of pregnant women in West Virginia are smokers. That has a host of implications: low-birth-weight babies, unhealthy pregnancies, having our kids starting off on the wrong foot right off the bat."

Opponents of the plan say the higher tax could drive customers to stores across the state's borders, and could be negative during a weak economy, but Hamsher says getting people to quit would mean a more productive workforce and lower health care bills.

"For every pack of cigarettes sold in West Virginia we see ten dollars worth of cost. The total cost annually to West Virginia is about a billion dollars."

Currently, among other things, the proposal says the additional taxes would help fund Medicaid and retiree health benefits. A portion would also go to smoking prevention, doubling funding for that.

Hamsher says that would still leave West Virginia below the recommendations of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

"So even at doubling it, we'd still only be at 40 percent of what the CDC recommends to fund a fully comprehensive tobacco prevention and education program in the state; but it's certainly a step in the right direction."

Hamsher says the tax increase would lower youth smoking by about 15 percent and prevent 10,000 early deaths.



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