Kansas is friendly to smokers and those who use tobacco products.
The state’s tax on cigarettes, which has remained static since 2003, is 79 cents per pack, against the national average of $1.46 per pack.
A bill in the Kansas House proposes the tax be tripled to $2.29 per pack as well as a tax increase on other tobacco products from 10 percent to 78 percent.
Such a tax increase could be expected to raise more than $100 million — if tobacco trends continue. A likely effect of such a tax hike, however, is a reduction in the number of tobacco users. So the hike isn’t a sound budget plan.
As a cost to society, however, smokers take a heavy toll — so any decrease in smokers would add to our bottom line.
For a business, smokers are absent more because of smoking-related conditions such as emphysema, bronchitis and problems breathing. Smoking is a leading cause of cancer, heart and lung disease and strokes.
In the United States, cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year, and another 42,000 deaths per year resulting from exposure to secondhand smoke.
On average, smokers die 10 years earlier than nonsmokers.
Between lost days at work and medical expenses related to smoking, the United States spends more than $289 billion a year.
Almost 70 percent of smokers are disgusted with their habit and want to quit, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Increasing the cost of cigarettes will hit the pocketbook hard.
A pack-a-day habit averages $2,160 a year. For a heavy smoker, make it $6,000 a year.
At the poverty level, a pack-a-day habit can consume 10 percent of a family’s monthly budget.
Kansas ranks 36th in pricing for a pack, averaging $5.13 for 20 cigarettes. New York charges the most, $10.11 a pack, while Missouri ranks last, at $4.51 a pack.
Experts with The Tobacco Free Kansas Coalition say the tax would put cigarettes out of reach for an estimated 33,500 Kansas youths tempted to take up the habit and another 27,800 adults would quit because of the higher cost.
House Bill 2672 would put the price of cigarettes sold in Kansas in the upper third of the nation. Sounds like a leadership position.
— Susan Lynn
Kansas at low end for tobacco products
