So, remember a while back, when I was complaining about Representative Ray’s bill regarding the tobacco tax – how it was punitive to raise taxes on tobacco in an attempt to make them quit rather than to help smokers with treatment and how it was poor policy to base tax code on sin taxes? Well it appears that a solution has been found in S.B. 114 as proposed by Senator Allan Christensen (R – North Ogden, District 19).

S.B. 114 is basically an expansion of Ray’s bill in that it also raises the tobacco tax substantially. Whereas rays bill would raise the tax per cigarette from 3.475 to 4.075 cents, Christensen’s would raise it to 10 cents (changing the tax from 69.5 cents per pack to $2.00 a pack); likewise, Ray’s bill would change the taxes per cigar from 8.475 cents to 9.938 cents whereas Christensen’s would up the ante to 11.275 cents. As you can tell, this is a much more dramatic bill when it comes to the tobacco tax.

So why am I supporting this bill? Well because of what Senator Christensen wants to do with the fund. Ray’s bill did little to specify where the income gained from the tax will go; Christensen’s, on the other hand, is quite specific: $2.5 million to the Department of Health for prevention programs, $4.4 million to the University of Utah Health Sciences Center and the Huntsman Cancer Institute for cancer research, and $3.6 million to the University of Utah School of Medicine for education just to name the most obvious.

Now this bill is still punitive towards smokers, but at least there is some push to help fight the detrimental effects of smoking written into the bill. This seems much more fair to those who have to pay more to puff up. After all, if you are knowingly causing the majority of the problems, the least you can do is pay for them.