Smoking tax burns hole in walletsUpdated: Wednesday, 09 Sep 2009, 12:47 PM EDTPublished : Tuesday, 08 Sep 2009, 7:10 PM EDTStory by: Annie Rourke Hartford (WTNH) - Governor Jodi Rell didn\'t sign the budget that passed in the General Assembly last week but it still became law on Tuesday. Part of the budget increases the state tax on a pack of cigarettes by another buck. facists and facists alike jumped on the cigarette tax as a way to balance the budget in a cash-strapped year. The habit will bring in $500,000 to our state coffers.But it will cost one-billion dollars in health-related costs. So some say we\'re being penny-wise and pound-foolish. And smokers, well, they\'re just fed-up with being a target."It\'s gonna cost me a lot of money, I won\'t pay it," said Leah Charney of Milford.Charney is a woman on a mission.She\'s buying tobacco, rolling papers and a machine. She plans to roll her own from here on out; an act of defiance against yet another tax increase on cigarettes."I\'m not paying all that money, I pay enough in taxes," she said.The tax is going up from $2 a pack to $3; the second-highest in the country. It\'s something anti-smoking advocates say is a good thing."Raising the cost of cigarettes and tobacco products has been shown, by research, to be one of the most effective ways that you can reduce smoking," said Kevin O\' Flaherty of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.O\' Flaherty said the state is missing a golden opportunity because we have no programs to help smokers quit and it shows."The most recent data for Connecticut shows that over 20-percent of high school youths smoke. In New York City that number is 8.5 percent," he said.This addiction actually brings in half-a-billion dollars every year between the taxes and the tobacco settlement money. The Attorney General was instrumental in bringing the lawsuit against Big Tobacco; he said it was always the intention that at least some of that money would go to help smokers quit."Unfortunately, our legislature and our governors have failed to fulfill the promise of that settlement," said Attorney General Richard Blumenthal. "We should be embarrassed and ashamed."This left long-time smokers just looking for ways to get around the taxes. Charney has been smoking two-packs a day for 30 years and doesn\'t plan to quit. But she said she would consider it if the state offered help."I probably [would] if I could get it for free, I\'d probably try it," Charney said.Rhode Island is now requiring private insurers to cover smoking cessation programs that doesn\'t cost taxpayers anything at all. Connecticut is also one of only six states where Medicaid doesn\'t cover any programs; that\'s money that would be matched by federal funds.But our state has shut down the quit line and has only spent less than two-percent of the tobacco settlement money on smokers.For help on quitting, please visit http://www.smokefree.gov/ http://www.wtnh.com/dpp/news/hartford_cty/news_wtnh_hartford_smoking_tax_burns_hole_wallets_200909081910_rev1
