"Common Cause studies:
Influence of tobacco industry costs states lives and money"

States are deterred from enacting tobacco controls and suffer the deaths of many citizens and needless costs because of pressure from the tobacco industry. The Common Cause Education Fund, which works to promote open, honest, and accountable government through research, public education, and innovative program studies, conducted research on tobacco industry lobbying in 12 states. Reports were issued in 2002-2003 for California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, North Carolina, Vermont, and Wisconsin.

In every state, tobacco lobbying deterred states from enacting tobacco controls. Facts from these reports are excerpted below. The full reports are available online at www.commoncause.org/tobacco.

In Massachusetts, tobacco companies and their allies spent $6.1 million on lobbying from 1995-2002. The 2003 state budget cut funding to tobacco prevention and cessation programs by 90%, although income from tobacco-generated sources had increased.

In Connecticut, the U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co. (UST) has been a generous contributor to state legislators and used its corporate jet to fly Governor Rowland to events. In 2000, Connecticut’s General Assembly decreased taxes on smokeless tobacco. UST, in particular, received a huge tax break as a result.

Several days before Maryland’s 2003 state budget was released, the Philip Morris tobacco company contributed $10,000 to the Governor’s inaugural ball. Governor Ehrlich cut the funding for tobacco control programs by 40%, even though each pack of cigarettes sold in Maryland costs taxpayers $10.03 in related healthcare expenditures.

In North Carolina, 78% of the state legislature receive campaign contributions from the tobacco industry and their allies. The state has an excise tax on cigarettes of five cents per pack, the third lowest in the country.

Of Florida’s 160 state legislators, 150 have received contributions from either the tobacco industry or its allies. During the 2003 legislative session the funds allocated to Florida’s successful tobacco control program were cut from $38 million to only $1 million.

In Colorado, the tobacco industry spent $5.5 million to defeat Amendment 1 in 1994. The amendment would have raised Colorado’s tobacco excise tax by 50 cents and repealed the exemption of cigarettes from the state sales tax. (Every 10% increase in the price of cigarettes will reduce overall cigarette consumption by 3-5% and reduce youth smoking by about 7%.)

In California, while decisions about the 2003 budget were being made, the lobbying activities of tobacco companies and their allies steadily intensified; R.J. Reynolds increased its lobbying spending by 70%. The final budget failed to increase taxes on cigarettes, despite a huge budget deficit, and funding to state’s tobacco control program, proven to save lives and reduce costs, was cut.