By Julia Yetter
Smokers may soon be putting more money into the pockets of Kentucky university students.
The Kentucky House of Representatives recently passed a bill which would increase the state cigarette tax by 25 cents and restore $253.4 million to state university funding, eliminating the 12 percent cut to higher education funding Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear called for in his January budget proposal.
As the bill now moves on to the state senate where it faces an uncertain future, many state representatives feel the bill is valuable not just for higher education funding, but for decreasing the amount of smokers in Kentucky.
Rep. David Watkins, a Hendersonville Democrat and doctor, implored House members to consider the rising public health costs for treating people with tobacco related illnesses.
“Don’t tell me we’re putting it on their backs. They’re putting it on us,” Watkins stated in an article in The Courier-Journal.
Across campus, U of L?student’s tended to agree a 25 cent increase in the state’s cigarette tax was a positive step for Kentucky.?
Katie Moran, a sophomore political science major and smoker, admitted she couldn’t really argue with the tax as a student, since some of the revenue generated by it will supposedly go to funding higher education.?
“I kind of hope to quit one day anyway when it gets expensive enough,” Moran said.?
Several students expressed similar views, suggesting the thought of shelling out an additional 25 cents for a pack of cigarettes was not altogether devastating to them.?
“It might be enough to get me to quit smoking,” said Whitney McClure, a sociology and race and gender studies major. Will Price, an un-declared sophomore said, “If [the bill] keeps younger kids from smoking, then it’s alright with me.”
Dr. Kari Zahorik, a physician working at the university’s student health center, pointed out the effect on-campus smoking can have on non-smoking students. Zahorik said she sees the effects of smoking every day in students suffering from allergies, asthma, and infections, all of which can be caused or exacerbated by smoking.
“My hope is that [the increased tax] will still have an effect but I would like to have seen it higher,” Zahorik said.?Adding the need to “put up barriers for smoking,” and noting “education can decrease rates of smoking.”?
According to studies published by Tobacco Free Kids, an anti-tobacco lobbying group, studies have shown every 10 percent increase in the price of cigarettes reduces youth smoking by seven percent and over-all consumption by four percent.
The same studies found Kentucky not only has the highest adult smoking rate in the country, it also has one of the highest rates of youth smoking.?
During a recent press conference, held by several advocacy groups seeking to draw attention to the fact that Kentucky stands as the forty-ninth in the nation for the number of pregnant women that smoke, Watkins told the press this was not the first time he had launched an initiative to increase the states cigarette tax, adding he believed the states need to generate some revenue was the reason his bill finally took off this year.? ?
Several Republican representatives agreed with Watkins, and said they feel the state’s dire economic situation is motivating the tax more than a desire to keep university funding high.
“This is not about kids. It’s not about health. It’s about the money,” as stated by Rep. David Floyd, R-Bardstown, in The Courier-Journal.
Rep. Harry Moberly, chairman of the budget committee, agreed the state needs revenue, but cuts to higher education as well as health and social programs need to be avoided at all costs, as stated to The Courier-Journal.
“All this demagoguery about tax increases is baloney,” Moberly said of the bill’s dissenters. “If you listen to these people we’ll never move the state forward again.”
