By Joyce Kryszak
Buffalo, NY – Officials at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute are supporting the Governor's proposal to raise the excise tax on cigarettes.
The Governor's proposal would add a dollar to the cost of a pack of cigarettes. That's a sixteen percent hike over the current price. About half of the additional tax revenues would be added to the roughly $45,000 now spent on smoking prevention and cessation programs. RPCI Doctor Michael Cummings says that's a drop in the bucket compared to what tobacco companies spend to hook new customers.
"The cigarette industry is spending $500 million a year -- $10 million a week in New York State -- basically to market tobacco products," Cummings said.
Doctors say that higher prices would discourage teens from starting the addictive habit. Statistics show that for every ten percent hike in the cost of cigarettes, there is a seven percent decline in teen smoking. Doctors say it also prompts more adult smokers to quit.
Erie County Executive Joel Giambra joined Hospital officials in supporting the tax hike. A cancer survivor himself, Giambra says another deterrent would be collecting taxes on tobacco products sold on Indian reservations to non-Indians. He says it's the law and should be enforced.
About 25,000 New Yorkers die each year from smoking related diseases. The annual cost for medical care in 2002 was $7.5 billion.