Cigarette Tax For Student Aid?
Sacramento, CA — The Secretary of State’s Office gave the go ahead for a proposed Cigarette Tax Initiative ballot to begin collecting signatures.
The $1.00 cigarette tax would fund student financial aid a University of California and California State University.
The financial impact is estimated at $800 million from the cigarette excise tax and $45 million from the excise tax increase on other tobacco products triggered by the measure. The additional revenue would be spent on financial aid for resident students at the state’s public universitites ($730 million) and backfilling losses to existing tobacco programs ($70 million). The additional revenue from other tobacco products would be used for other existing programs, including tobacco-prevention and education.
Proponent for the measure, James C. Harrison, has until July 22nd to collect 504,760 registered voters signatures to qualify for the ballot.
