Monday, October 12, 1998
Passage of Prop. 10 would raise funds through increased smoking
tax
Supporters say cash will help kids; opponents call plan big
bureaucracy
By Marisa Yamane
Daily Bruin Contributor
Smokers in California will have to pay 50 cents more for each
pack of cigarettes if Proposition 10 is approved by voters in the
upcoming November election.
The revenues collected from this additional tax would be placed
into a new fund called the California Children and Families First
Trust Fund, which would subsidize the costs of early childhood
development and smoking prevention programs, as well as
breast-cancer research.
When added to the current excise tax of 37 cents  a tax
added on top of sales tax  smokers will end up paying a total
of 87 cents per pack of cigarettes in taxes alone.
The measure would also increase the excise tax by $1 on all
other tobacco products including chewing and pipe tobacco, cigars
and snuff.
Proponents of the measure said that the early childhood years of
life are the most critical for brain growth and development.
‘How children function from the preschool years all the way
through adolescence, and even adulthood, hinges in large part on
their experiences before the age of three,’ concludes a report by
the Carnegie Corporation of New York, a policy research
institution.
If passed, Proposition 10 will generate funds for programs such
as immunizations, nutrition services and health care treatments,
all aimed at the development of pre-school children, according to
the proposal.
A study conducted by the Families and Work Institute claims that
every dollar spent on early childhood programs can save taxpayers
up to $7 in remedial education, welfare and juvenile crime.
Government officials expect to collect $750 million in new tax
money in the first year, if the proposition passes.
The funds would also provide for the administrative costs of
creating the new state and county commissions.
Opponents of Proposition 10 said that they feel that the
initiative is nothing more than a bureaucratic program in favor of
government officials.
‘Proposition 10 is a big government initiative that would create
a new state bureaucracy … and it has a vague oversight for
childcare programs,’ said Matt Taggert, the spokesperson for the
Committee Against Unfair Taxes.
The measure would create 59 new government agencies, as well as
58 commissions in each of California’s counties.
Opponents say that Proposition 10 could lead to the hiring of
over 8,000 new state employees, and that there are no guarantees
that the money will end up in the communities.
The proposition also allows the political appointees to audit
themselves without any independent oversight, opponents say.
‘Proposition 10 would continue a disturbing trend in California
by further reducing the public’s ability to influence the
expenditure of tax revenues,’ said William Hamm, former California
legislative analyst, in his written comments on Proposition 10.
Opponents feel that it is not necessary to create a another tax
for a new fund, because there already exists a wide array of child
development services such as the Headstart Program, the State
Preschool Program and the Early Mental Health Initiative.
‘They should build on the existing ones rather than create
redundant delivery mechanisms,’ Hamm said.
Many UCLA students were more concerned about the effect of the
proposition on their pocketbooks rather than on the specifics of
the initiative.
‘Raising (the price) by 50 cents isn’t going to stop people from
smoking cigarettes,’ said fourth-year student Sang Lee, who sides
with the opponents of Proposition 10.
‘Even if it goes up to $5 a pack, people are still going to
smoke,’ Lee said.
Some UCLA students, however, support the proposition because
they believe that the extra tax will help them or others to quit
smoking.
‘Maybe it’ll help me to stop smoking too, because it’ll take
more of my money,’ said Stevi Benton, a second-year student. ‘I’ll
have to save 50 more cents just to get my pack of cigarettes,’
‘Some people smoke two packs a day, and that’s a dollar a day,
and seven bucks a week,’ said Kendall Chow, a second-year
student.
Students also said they feel that the raised cost per pack of
cigarettes may deter youngsters from even starting.
‘It’ll help the younger smokers because if they want to start
smoking, they’re going to have to pay more than I did when I
started smoking,’ Benton said.
Still, opponents maintain that the proposition is
misleading.
‘It’s a badly written law … that’s very poorly and loosely
crafted,’ Taggert said.
Comments, feedback, problems?
© 1998 ASUCLA Communications Board[Home]