ATTENTION MISSOURI VOTERS

November 7th is fast approaching, here's a great bit from STLToday.com about why you should vote YES on Amendment 3:

Yes on Amendment 3
10/29/2006

Missouri will collect about $107 million in cigarette taxes this year. At the same time, Missouri taxpayers will spend more than $2 billion — much of it through Medicaid and Medicare — to treat people with tobacco-related illnesses like heart disease, lung cancer and emphysema. The overwhelming majority of the money will come from taxpayers who don't smoke.

Anti-tobacco groups, including the American Cancer Society, the American Heart and Lung associations, doctors and hospitals, want to raise cigarette taxes by 80 cents a pack. That price hike would prevent many young people from taking up smoking; as it is, about one in five Missouri teens smokes. The tobacco tax revenue would provide money for anti-smoking campaigns in schools, increase payments to doctors who treat Medicaid patients and provide health care for the poor.

The tax increase, Amendment 3, is one of five ballot issues facing voters in the Nov. 7 election. It would raise Missouri's cigarette tax, now the second-lowest in the nation (behind South Carolina, a major tobacco-producing state), to about the national average.

Opponents of the tax, including convenience store owners and other retailers who sell tobacco products, argue that the amendment unfairly targets the poor. They've got it exactly backward. The tobacco industry unfairly targets the poor, and the poor suffer disproportionate harm because of it. The tax increase, in fact, would benefit poor people by giving them an additional incentive to quit smoking, by helping them learn how and by paying for some of the health care they need but can't afford.

The opposition is fueled by contributions from global tobacco giant R.J. Reynolds, and from stores that profit by selling a dangerous and addictive product. Their campaign against Amendment 3 is marked by the same shameless half-truths and outright lies that characterized decades of tobacco advertising.

They argue the tax will cost Missouri billions of dollars in extra Medicaid payments. But their facts — it may invite lawsuits that might make the state dramatically expand Medicaid coverage — are as insubstantial as smoke.

Opponents allege the tax will unfairly force smokers to pay for health care provided to others. Once again, they've got it backwards. Cigarettes would have to cost about $7.75 a pack in Missouri just to cover the cost of smokers' health care now. Even an 80-cent tax hike won't bring them anywhere near that amount.

With breathtaking hypocrisy, opponents criticize backers of the amendment because lawmakers in Jefferson City — most of whom don't support the tax increase — used tobacco settlement money to balance the state budget, rather than fund prevention efforts. Opponents also say the amendment is too complicated. But it has to be to keep tobacco tax money from being used for other purposes — like balancing the budget — by short-sighted legislators.

Opponents imply, falsely, that the tax is backed by big drug and health insurance companies. It's not.

Unlike the taxes we must pay to help cover the cost of health care for those with tobacco-related illnesses, the tobacco tax is entirely voluntary. If people don't want to pay it, they don't have to buy tobacco.

To reduce the incidence of smoking-related illnesses, to keep more Missouri children from starting to smoke, to help smokers quit and to help cover the cost of caring for those already debilitated by smoking, vote Yes on Amendment 3.