Poll: 62% back boosting cigarette tax $1 (Part2)
Legislators looking for political support to vote for a cigarette tax increase got some big help Monday, as a new poll showed a strong majority of Hoosiers support raising the tax by as much as $1.
Gov. Mitch Daniels has proposed raising the state's 55.5-cents-per-pack cigarette tax by at least 25 cents in order to fund health insurance for the working poor, anti-smoking programs and immunizations for children.
But the poll, taken on behalf of a coalition of 28 groups called Hoosiers for a Healthier Indiana, showed 62 percent of Hoosiers support a tax increase of four times Daniels' minimum, so long as the money goes to health initiatives.
"Twenty-five cents is good. Fifty cents is great. But a dollar? Wow," said Danielle Patterson, senior advocacy director for the American Heart Association. "Just think about what we could do to really impact health in Indiana."
Support for the tax increase crosses partisan lines, the poll showed, with 61 percent of Democrats and 64 percent of Republicans and independents favoring a $1 tax increase on cigarettes.
"It's clear that a majority of Hoosiers support increasing the tobacco tax, and we are going to work this session to make sure legislators vote (to do that.) We are committed to this. It is the right thing to do for our youth. It is the right thing to do for Indiana," said Patricia Richards Ells, a spokeswoman for the American Cancer Society.
The survey was conducted by Virginia-based Public Opinion Strategies and Washington, D.C.-based Mellman Group on behalf of the American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, American Lung Association and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
Raising the cigarette tax to $1.555 would rank Indiana's tax, currently the 36th in the nation, as the 11th-highest. The state with the highest tax is New Jersey, which charges $2.58 per pack.
Nathan Henry, a spokesman for The Mellman Group, said the poll showed there's little political risk for legislators who support a tax increase.
Of those polled, 46 percent said they would definitely vote in favor of a legislator who backed the cigarette tax increase, while only 17 percent said they would definitely vote against a legislator who supported the increase. Another 35 percent said the increase would make no difference in their vote.
Both the Democrat-controlled House and Republican-controlled Senate are debating proposals to provide more health coverage to Hoosiers. The Senate version does not yet include a cigarette tax increase. In the House, Rep. Charlie Brown, the Gary Democrat who is chairman of the Public Health Committee, held his first hearing on the issue last week, examining various proposals laid out by several lawmakers. Although none yet includes a specific tax increase, Brown has said he supports raising the tax by $1.
The poll of 500 registered voters, conducted Jan. 10 and 11, has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.38 percentage points.
