Tagged: cigarette tax

Missouri has the lowest cigarette tax of any state in the country – and some of the highest smoking and lung cancer rates. A measure on tomorrow’s ballot – Proposition B – is aiming to change that.

While previous efforts to raise Missouri’s cigarette tax have failed, proponents of this increase are more optimistic.

In the third of four discussions as part of our town hall meeting about statewide ballot issues we take a look at Proposition B, concerning a tobacco tax increase.

Host Don Marsh talks with Dudley McCarter, an attorney and board member of Missourians for Health and Education, and Ron Leone, the Executive Director of the Missouri Petroleum Marketers & Convenience Store Association. 

McCarter supports Proposition B and Leone opposes it.

Official Ballot Title: (source: Missouri Secretary of State website)

Democratic US Senator Claire McCaskill is throwing her support behind the November ballot initiative that would raise the cigarette tax in Missouri. If approved, the initiative would increase the current cigarette tax from the lowest in the nation at 17 cents, to 90 cents.

Missouri voters will be asked in November to raise the state's tobacco tax and let St. Louis run its own police department.

Secretary of State Robin Carnahan announced Tuesday that supporters of those proposals had submitted enough signatures from voters to put the questions on the statewide ballot.

Two other initiatives failed to make the ballot. One would raise Missouri's minimum wage, while the other would place new restrictions on payday loans.

Proponents of those measures immediately said they would challenge their exclusions in court.