Faced with severe budget cuts set to impact education, health and social services and all state offices, Kentucky Democrats have introduced legislation that would increase the state’s cigarette tax - despite Governor Steve Beshear’s promise in the State of the Commonwealth address to not raise taxes.     With the support of several colleagues, Representative David Watkins, D-Henderson, on Feb. 1 introduced a bill in the House of Representatives to raise the cigarette tax from 30 cents to 70 cents per pack. The tax on all other tobacco products would be raised from 7.5 percent to 10 percent to be paid by the wholesaler.
Watkins said the tax increase could help pay for healthcare related costs and improve the budget in general.
“It’s estimated that about $600 million annually is expended on the Medicaid budget related to the substance abuse of nicotine - tobacco use,” Watkins said. “This is a significant problem that’s costing our Commonwealth a lot of money at a time we are basically almost bankrupt.”
The Trail Blazer contacted several legislators in Frankfort for comment on the proposed legislation.  Non contacted would go on record as supporting the cigarette tax, but all said, in the end, they would likely vote for the cigarette tax to help support the budget.
One adviser said the state representative he works for would rather have a cigarette tax than cut spending.
MSU students who smoke said they have to accept a raise, but think it is unfair.
“It is our fault that we started smoking, but it’s not fair that we have to pay more,” sophomore Stephanie Benson said.
Another student, who did not want to be named because her parents do not know she smokes, said, “It would probably stop many from starting, because it sucks that you pay that much.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 28.6 percent of Kentucky adults consumed cigarettes in 2006, when the most recent survey was taken, making Kentucky the state with the highest percentage of smokers nationwide. Neighboring West Virginia was second with 25.1 percent.
Smokers in the Commonwealth start off young — 12.1 percent of middle school students and 24.5 percent of high school students smoke, according to the CDC.
Representative Watkins believes a higher cigarette tax could curb smoking among young people.
“I’m trying to help reduce our teenage smoking,” he said. “There are statistics that show that if you make an increase . . . in the tax, you can affect your young people and your teenage smoking rate.”
MSU students interviewed do not think it would help.
“It wouldn’t stop me from smoking,” Benson said. “I already pay more for cigarettes, because I live in Ohio.”
Morehead State Geography Professor Gary O’Dell, who said he has tried for years to quit smoking, has mixed feelings about the proposed increase.
“I don’t want to be a smoker, but I don’t want to be paying more for it as long as I do it,” O’Dell said. “As a smoker I’m not against the cigarette tax, but it mainly affects poor people.”
But O’Dell thinks a higher cigarette tax could help stop people from smoking.
“There is a breaking point,” he said. “Cigarettes will get so expensive, you have to decide, do I get cigarettes or do I buy food.”
Some legislators argue that if people consume less tobacco Kentucky’s economy could be negatively impacted. According to the CDC, Kentucky tobacco agriculture generates more than $330 million annually.
Representative Watkins does not think a hike in the tobacco tax would impact farmers.
“If we would stop everybody in Kentucky from smoking it would have a very low impact on our tobacco production in Kentucky, simply because the tobacco market is a worldwide trade,” he said.
The house bill proposing the tax increase is currently in the House Committee for Appropriations and Revenue. If it passes in both the House and Senate the tax on cigarettes and tobacco products would go into effect Aug. 1.