Initiative on Cigarette Tax Halted

Smokers still fuming over the new ban on their habit in bars can breathe a temporary sigh of relief knowing that an initiative to add a 50-cent tax to a pack of smokes has been snuffed out.

Backers of the so-called after-school tutoring initiative have stopped collecting the 433,000 signatures needed to put the measure on the June ballot.

The initiative was supposed to raise $800 million for programs to keep children out of gangs, and was intended to take advantage of the same anti-tobacco sentiment that helped ban smoking in bars.

The tax was to increase to 60 cents in 2008.

But backers, led by Assemblyman Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks) and Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Commissioner Steve Soboroff, said they halted the effort after collecting about 200,000 signatures.

Smokers should hold off lighting the victory cigar, though.

Hertzberg said he and other initiative backers have dropped their campaign so they can concentrate their efforts on the campaign for a 50-cent cigarette tax initiative led by actor-director Rob Reiner.

The Reiner initiative, which is intended to go on the November 1998 ballot, would raise money to fund early childhood development programs.

Reiner, who is expected to receive strong support from the entertainment industry, needs to collect 693,000 signatures by May 11.

Hertzberg said his group had no trouble collecting signatures for the after-school tutoring initiative. But he said the group thought that voters might not support two cigarette taxes in the same year.

The new plan, he said, is for his group to back the Reiner initiative and then reintroduce the after-school tutoring initiative in 2000, proposing that cigarettes be taxed even more.

“We will assist them, and they are going to assist us after the fact,” Hertzberg said.

But some political pundits say it may not be easy to breathe new life into the after-school tutoring initiative later. One reason is that the public may not feel as strongly about taxing tobacco products as it does now.

Recent accounts of tobacco firms allegedly suppressing information about the health hazards of their products and manipulating nicotine levels to deliberately hook smokers have helped fuel anti-tobacco sentiment, political pundits agree.

Another potential problem is that the price of cigarettes may increase so much in two years that the public may hesitate to add another tax.

Lawmakers in Washington are still debating a giant tobacco deal that could increase cigarette prices by as much as $1.50 per pack to pay for treatment of tobacco-related diseases.