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Tobacco Tax Initiative—Oregon,
1996
The Friday, March 21, 1997, issue of the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly
Report (MMWR) contains the article "Tobacco Tax Initiative—Oregon, 1996."
The new study from the state of Oregon and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
suggests that public support for raising tobacco taxes was increased by explicit
dedication of new revenue from the tax for both a new statewide tobacco-use prevention and
education program and expanded insurance coverage under the Oregon Health Plan. The
intitiative, Measure 44, was approved by voters 56 percent to 44 percent. The measure
authorizes 10 percent of the new tax to be used for prevention and education and 90
percent to be used to expand health care coverage for medically underserved persons.
The study also found the following:
Oregon became the fourth state to pass a citizen initiative to
raise tobacco taxes and dedicate a portion of the new tax revenue to tobacco prevention
and education programs. California (1988), Massachusetts (1992), and Arizona (1994) have
also passed such initiatives.
In a preelection survey, only 20 percent of respondents favored an
increase in the tobacco tax if the funds were added to the state general funds, but 89
percent favored the tax to expand coverage for the medically underserved, whereas 67
percent favored the funds to be earmarked for tobacco-use prevention.
In a postelection survey, 66 percent of the respondents who
supported the initiative cited "to discourage tobacco consumption" as their
primary reason for favoring the initiative, whereas 27 percent cited "to expand the
health plan" as their primary reason.
Tobacco Tax Initiative—Oregon,
1996 46(11);246-248, March
21, 1997
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