Montgomery County Executive Doug Duncan?s proposal to boost state health care by doubling the tax on cigarettes may be unstable following the trend of smoke-free legislation being passed throughout the state, according to his gubernatorial challengers.
According to Duncan?s proposal, the hike would result in almost $200 million to enroll 30,000 uninsured children in the state. It would also increase funding for drug treatment programs by more than $30 million and increase the Medicaid coverage to 100 percent ?twice that of the national poverty level.
Baltimore Mayor Martin O?Malley decried Duncan?s proposal.
“To attach annual expenses to a decreasing revenue stream wouldn?t be wise,” said O?Malley spokesman Rick Abbruzzese.
Republican Gov. Robert Ehrlich also opposed the hike.
“It is terrible public policy to base an initiative on a decreasing source of revenue,” Ehrlich spokesman Henry Falwell said.
Ehrlich opposed a similar proposal that came through the General Assembly this year. The bill died in a House of Delegates committee.
Despite concerns, he said Tuesday he believed the plan was “realistic,” and health care advocates agreed.
“Anecdotal evidence suggests that bans do cause a decrease in cigarette sales,” said Glenn Schneider, vice president of the Health Care for All coalition, a sector of the nonprofit group Maryland Citizens? Health Initiative Education Fund that has advocated the proposal in its various forms for several years. “But the plan is designed to make sure money is in there for the long haul.”
Schneider said the plan accounted for decreasing revenue from cigarette sales by budgeting conservatively. According to the funding plan, the health-care expenses proposed will total about $348 million in fiscal 2008, while estimated tobacco tax revenues will be about $486 million. The remaining money from the increase will be saved to hedge future years, Schneider said.
Schneider, who is also the legislative chairman of the Smoke Free Howard County advocacy group that pushed for the county?s recent ban, said Howard County residents have voiced “off the chart support” for a cigarette hike that would bolster health-care funding.
“The people in Howard County are a highly educated, very wealthy community and progressive in their thinking,” he said. “It?s not surprising to me that they are so for this plan.”
The state?s last tax hike on cigarettes came in 2002, when it was raised from 66 cents to $1 a pack. If adopted, the state would have the fourth-highest cigarette tax in the country, behind Rhode Island, New Jersey and Washington state.
