Poll shows public approval of $1 cigarette tax hike

A majority of North Carolinians support raising the cigarette tax to help offset the state budget deficit, according to the results of a poll released Monday.

The N.C. Alliance for Health found 66 percent of 500 poll participants approved increasing the tax by $1 per pack to relieve some of the deficit. The alliance is an advocacy organization dedicated to reducing tobacco use and battling obesity.

The poll’s participants are likely voters in the election, said Peg O’Connell, chairwoman of the alliance’s tobacco prevention policy committee.

She said North Carolina’s current tax on cigarettes is 45 cents per pack, the seventh lowest in the nation. Raising the tax to $1.45 would make the state’s tax equivalent to the national average.

However, doing this might have negative consequences for one of the state’s largest industries.

“When consumption decreases, the tobacco companies will cut back on contracts to farmers who grow tobacco,” said Brian Long, director of the public affairs division of the N.C. Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services.

Income for tobacco farmers would decrease, as well as the revenue collected from taxes on this income, Long said.

UNC political science professor Tom Carsey said there is no one solution to the budget deficit, but raising taxes would be a start. Carsey also said he was not sure a cigarette tax would be the best solution.

Last year, South Carolina increased its cigarette tax from seven cents to 57 cents.

North Carolina’s $1-per-pack increase would provide about $338.4 million in revenue to the state in the first year, O’Connell said. She said this revenue might help prevent education cuts and she hoped members of the university community would participate in advocating for the tax.

Long said the decrease in revenue for tobacco companies would also decrease the companies’ payments to fund certain state programs.

A 1998 settlement between the four largest tobacco companies in the United States and the attorney generals of 46 states required the companies to fund the N.C. Health and Wellness Trust Fund, the N.C. Tobacco Trust Fund Commission and other organizations that promote job growth within the state.

Gov. Bev Perdue did not include a tax increase on cigarettes in her recent budget proposal, and O’Connell said the governor missed the opportunity to earn almost $400 million for the state.

Carsey said he is not sure why the governor did not include the tax increase, but he does not believe the Republican majority in the N.C. General Assembly would increase the tax, even if Perdue had included it in her proposal.

Long said the N.C. General Assembly has shown that it is not interested in any kind of tax increase.

Still, O’Connell said the tax might be a possibility.

“We are still hoping that they will consider this,” O’Connell said.

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