Despite what some smokers might claim, tobacco is a luxury.
No one will ever starve to death for want of a cigarette and if every tobacco leaf in the world disappeared, the Earth would still (perhaps somewhat irritably) keep turning.
Despite that fact, Proposition 29 might not be such a great idea.
Yes, curing lung cancer is a laudable goal and yes, raising the excise tax by a dollar per pack might go a long way to achieving that goal.
However, the question shouldn’t be whether Proposition 29 would work as intended (despite advertising by tobacco companies implying otherwise), but whether that is the goal California should be pursuing right now.
The fact is California is in a state of financial crisis right now, with an estimated debt of more than $378 billion, compared to revenue of only $385 billion yearly.
Now, compared to that number, the $735 million that could be generated from Prop 29 annually sounds like just a drop in the bucket, but it could go a long way to helping California’s budget problems.
As students of El Camino, it’s hard not to notice the effect that continual budget cuts and reductions to staff and courses have had on our school.
In fact, the argument can be made that the goals of Prop 29 could still be met even if all of that revenue was placed into California’s educational system.
One of the central aims of Prop 29 is smoking prevention, with raised prices for cigarettes and money going towards smoking prevention education.
Wouldn’t raising the price of cigarettes and investing that money in schools instead accomplish the same thing?
Another major goal of Prop 29 is to fund cancer research. However, a great deal of such research takes place at state funded universities like UCLA, so wouldn’t it be wiser to ensure funds remain in state and still ensure that it benefits those who need it?
In fact, all cancer researchers must at one point be students themselves, so even funding to entirely unrelated departments and subjects would still potentially benefit cancer research.
It’s hard to fault the makers of Proposition 29 for wanting to solve a major health issue, but in our current economic predicament, California needs all the money it can get.
Cigarettes should have a higher tax, but that revenue should be used to help as many people as possible, not just people who smoke.
