Smokers blow it, anti-tobacco advocates say
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MADISON — Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle on Thursday blamed his state’s projected budget shortfall on the state’s smokers, citing a drastic dropoff in revenue from the recently imposed $1.77 per pack cigarette tax.
State lawmakers assumed when they passed the budget last year that cigarette taxes would bring in $987.5 million through June 30, 2009. Earlier this month, the legislative Fiscal Bureau lowered that estimate by about $15 million, helping to contribute toward a $650 million budget shortfall.
“Smokers, you need to do your part,” Doyle said at the state Capitol. “We passed our biennial budget with the expectation that you guys were gonna keep pumping your paychecks into the tobacco economy. What gives?”
Mike LeBlanc, president of the smokers’ rights organization Kiss My Ashtray, was equally befuddled but defended the individual buying decisions of the state’s smokers, particularly after the cigarette tax rose $1 a pack on Jan. 1.
“The economy’s stalling, and budgets are tight,” LeBlanc said. “I never would have believed it could happen, but it appears that our members have resorted to the drastic, unprecedented step of actually cutting back on their smoking.”
University of Wisconsin consumer economics professor Stanley Tuko called the downturn in smoker spending the most unusual phenomenon he’s encountered in his field.
“Normally, the demand for cigarettes is what we call inelastic, in other words impervious to market influences,” said Tuko. “In layman’s terms, these are people who, when their house is on fire, will take the opportunity to light up a quick cigarette before saving their family and treasured possessions.”
In addition to Doyle’s criticism on budgetary grounds, anti-smoking groups chided smokers for failing to adequately fund anti-tobacco education efforts.
“These programs depend upon the revenue generated by cigarette sales,” said Brenda O’Brian, president of Breathe Clean Wisconsin. “We simply have no choice but to begin scaling back, and the losers are Wisconsin’s kids. Is one less pack a day really worth condemning Little Suzy Sunshine and Junior Sportstar to emphysema?”
The development has prompted Breathe Clean and other groups to launch an aggressive public relations campaign to boost the cigarette sales upon which their cash-hungry anti-smoking programs depend. Among early promotions:
* A patriotic-themed “Smoke ’em Out” TV ad blitz, which enlists smokers as soldiers in the war against Big Tobacco by using their purchasing power of taxable tobacco products.
* The Wisconsin Tavern League has begun distribution of posters to bars around the state, depicting a 15-year-old fresh-faced, uniformed Boy Scout saluting and urging smokers to “Keep your Kool — don’t be a quitter.”
“Look, we’re all on the same team,” said John W. Forschek of Smoking Blows, a Madison-based organization that advocates smoke-free workplaces. “If we want to save the current generation of teens, it’s vital that smokers continue to consume tobacco products at reliably consistent levels.”
As for the state budget, Doyle has his own plan for getting smokers back on board. Among his proposals:
* Subsidize smokers’ tobacco purchases with a tax rebate. The rebates would be financed by another increase in the cigarette tax.
* Direct UW researchers to formulate a suitable tobacco substitute, equally addictive as nicotine but available at a fraction of the cost, that may be taxed at the same rate as cigarettes. Early experiments have yielded long, thin white sticks of hardened corn syrup. Researchers have found that adding a red sugar coating to one end of the sticks increases their appeal to smokers.
“We simply can’t afford to lose cigarette tax dollars in our fight against smoking,” said Doyle. “Only with the help of thousands of hopelessly addicted smokers raiding their families’ food budgets to purchase millions of dollars of nicotine products can we truly hope to rid Wisconsin of the evil of tobacco.”
That’s some crack reporting, Bucky. Glad to have you on the USA Tomorrow team.