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Why Roads, Not Cancer Concerns, Could Lead To Cig Tax Hike

Cancer prevention advocates have long called for Indiana to raise its cigarette tax – something the state hasn't done in eight years. But a road funding priority is finally generating momentum for the controversial move.

Hoosier smokers pay about a dollar per pack in cigarette taxes – that's in the bottom third of states and lower than almost all of Indiana's neighbors.

And Bryan Hannon, state director of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, says the state is paying nearly $1,000 per household in health care costs related to tobacco use. Raising the tax, he says, could solve two problems:

"Improve public health and reduce smoking rates and provide some much needed injection for public health programs and other programs that legislators need to be funding," says Hannon.

A study committee this year opted against recommending a cigarette tax increase. But House Republicans will likely include a one dollar hike in their infrastructure measure.

The increase is meant to help offset a shift in fuel sales tax dollars into road funding. Yet Senate fiscal leader Luke Kenley says that proposal isn't the answer to the state's infrastructure issues.

"Remember, the cigarette tax is a diminishing resource too, so you're falling to the same trap here," says Kenley. "We may run out of smokers one of these days."

Hannon admits that raising the cigarette tax – or any tax – in an election year is a tall order.

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