A significant increase in Virginia’s cigarette tax could be a hard sell in Richmond next January, but Alexandria officials are considering giving it a try.
In drafts of legislative proposals an Alexandria delegation will take to Richmond for the General Assembly’s 2011 session, city officials and several local commissions express support for raising the tax on cigarettes by $1 a pack not just to raise additional state revenues but to help curb smoking in a state with deep ties to tobacco.
Virginia now has the second-lowest cigarette tax in the nation at 30 cents a pack, behind only Missouri, which charges 17 cents a pack.
The District and Maryland have much higher tax rates. D.C. ranks ninth in the country at $2.50 per pack; Maryland ranks 11th at $2 a pack.
In letters and resolutions sent to Alexandria Legislative Director Bernard Caton, local health and economic commissions that support an increase in the cigarette tax cite a February study by the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids that concluded that a $1-per-pack increase would generate $317 million in new revenue for Virginia. The state collected $167.5 million in revenue from cigarette taxes in 2009.
Moreover, the state could benefit even if the tax increase prompts some smokers to quit, the study shows. Virginia loses $2.53 billion annually in lost productivity because of smoking-related causes, it shows.
“Anyone with eyes to see can notice the lost productivity in employees standing around outside to smoke,” said Mary Anne Weber, chairwoman of the Community Services Board.
Weber suggested that half of all new revenue be used to fund more anti-smoking campaigns and treatments for “addictions and other mental illnesses.”
The proposed tax increase will be discussed at a City Council work session Monday. A public hearing is scheduled for Nov. 13.
It wouldn’t be surprising if the council OKs the recommendation, Caton said. The city earlier raised its own cigarette tax rate to 80 cents a pack. Yet, any proposal to raise cigarette taxes statewide has always faced stiff opposition in the General Assembly.
“Issues that are this controversial take time to unfold,” said Alexandria Public Health Commission Vice Chairman Richard Merritt. “But we really have no time to lose on this.”
Mike O’Conner, president of the Virginia Petroleum, Convenience and Grocery Association, said his organization would oppose any tax increase. The additional revenue states hope to generate often doesn’t materialize, he said.
“People either refuse to pay the price and quit, or they go to contraband cigarettes, or roll their own,” O’Conner said. “People are very imaginative when it comes to situations like this, and the revenue is not forthcoming.”
