Voters in California defeated Proposition 29 on Tuesday night by a 50.8 percent to 49.2 percent count with all 21,993 precincts in the state reporting. Proposition 29 is a proposal to raise the tobacco tax in order to fund cancer research. If Proposition 29 was passed it would have raised the tax on each cigarette sold by five cents, which amounts to $1 per pack. An equivalent price would also occur on other tobacco products for the funding of cancer research. The passing of Prop 29 would have also created a committee of nine members that would have administered the funds raised by the increased taxes.
Funding for Proposition 29 came from the following organizations:
American Cancer Society ($8.47 million); Lance Armstrong’s foundation ($1.5 million); the American Heart Association ($563,594); New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg ($500,000); and the American Lung Association ($421,986).
Funding against Proposition 29 came from the following organizations:
Phillip Morris ($27.53 million); R.J. Reynolds ($11.17 million); U.S. Smokeless Tobacco ($3.04 million); American Snuff Co. ($1.75 million); and the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co. ($1.15 million).
The Propositions voted on Tuesday, which included Prop 29, will be among the last measures to ever appear on a primary ballot for the state. Governor Jerry Brown signed SB 202 into law back on October 7, 2011. SB 202 does not allow future ballot measures on primary ballots, only on general election ballots in November.
The American people have gotten to the point where all they look at are television commercials and decide who is the best candidate or which side has the best argument on an issue. The tobacco industry spent over $44 million; the anti-tobacco side spent about $11.5 million. Well, if Californians like so much to smoke and otherwise use tobacco, let the California Legislature and the Governor enact a law: the companies which sponsored the defeat of Proposal 29 should pay the entire costs of health care for any person who suffers from a disease about which there is clear and convincing evidence that the disease was caused by the use of tobacco.
@Pete: The American people have gotten to the point where we are getting tired of the nanny state trying to control people’s behavior. This is supposed to be a free country, and disproportionately taxing one segment of the population just because they do something you don’t necessarily approve of is not right. Where does it stop? If you’re going to pick on smokers, why not put a $1 per ice cream scoop tax, or $1 per stick of butter tax.. both of those items can cause health issues as well. The bottom line is no one is forcing anyone to smoke cigarettes (I smoked for 13 years but quit 6 months ago), people should be free to choose what they put into their bodies.
Question what is the national funding for the Federal National Cancer Institute funded by our Federal tax Dollars?
Summary
Funds available to the NCI in FY 2010 totaled over $5.098 billion, reflecting an increase of 2.6% and $131 million from the previous fiscal year. Now consider this. The America Cancer Society brags about lobbyimg for the National Cancer Institute in return the American Cancer Society gets millions of tax dollars from the NCI! No wonder they can spend “Major funding in support of Proposition 29 came from the American Cancer Society ($8.47 million)”
I bet this wasn’t being told to the California voters!
You complain about Tobacco Companies? Try the so called non profit the American Cancer Society, Calif. Div. (Proposition 86) that reported spending $4,738.00 in grass roots lobbying to the IRS when in one check they spent $637,000.00 which was above their non profit tax exempt status. Source American Cancer Society group tax return 990 and the Calif. Secretary of State data base! Check out the California Hospital Health Services that spent $11,000,000.00 on Proposition 86 their Federal Tax 990 Tax Return would make that impossible!
There is no such thing as a non-profit… at least not in the US. These companies are no better than the tobacco industry – I think that the only people that should be allowed to vote on a cigarette tax are the people who would have to pay it. Let’s get all the smokers together and put a tax on latte’s, sugar and soda! I’ll even set up a non-profit that will conduct “research” on a cure for obesity that the tax will help fund.
People criticize the Tobacco Industry for funding the anti prop 29 ads but they don’t say anything about these non profits who would have stood to gain a sizable amount of funding through the creation of this fund. When I pay for a pack of cigarettes I’m choosing to give my money to the company that I feel makes a product that I benefit from in some way. I don’t think that forcing me to pay someone $1 no matter which product I choose is fair because I don’t believe in what all of these charities do. We’ve spent billions of dollars on Cancer Research and they really haven’t gotten us that much closer to a cure… they don’t even have a transparent view of what a cure is – if you die 5 years and 1 day after going into remission you’re still considered cured of cancer – even if you die from the side effects of the treatment which in some cases is far worse than the actual cancer itself. Chemotherapy causes a whole list of side effects and most of the ingredients are carcinogenic themselves – what does that tell you about the cancer industry? Is it that much better than big tobacco 30 years ago?
Basically – don’t try to force me to pay someone for something that I don’t want. I want to smoke a freaking cigarette in peace – and frankly if I’m going to pay someone for a cure for cancer then maybe they should actually have to provide me one. My guess is that in 30 years we’re still going to be spending a crap load of money funding these non-profit companies like American Cancer Society and we won’t be much closer to curing anything – because where are all those doctors going to work if they don’t have cancer to treat?