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HELENA (AP) - Initiatives to more than double the taxes on most tobacco products and legalize marijuana for medical purposes qualified for the November ballot Friday.
That brings to seven the number of initiatives and referendums that will go before voters in the fall general election.
Initiative 149 calls for increasing the 70-cent tax on a pack of cigarettes to $1.70.
The tax on chewing tobacco would jump from 35 cents to 85 cents an ounce, and the tax rate on other tobacco products would double from 25 percent to 50 percent of the wholesale price.
The measure, which would take effect Jan. 1 if passed, would raise an additional $44.7 million in its first full year, according to estimates from the governor's budget office.
Most of the new money - about $38.4 million a year - would be spent on programs providing health insurance to poor children; prescription drugs to poor children, the elderly, chronically ill and disabled; and help to small businesses that offer employee health insurance.
About $6 million would be added to the state treasury and $414,000 made available for state building needs.
The secretary of state's office said Friday it had certified 26,187 petition signatures to qualify the tobacco tax measure in 33 of 56 counties. The medical marijuana measure, known as I-148, had 22,059 certified signatures and qualified in 28 counties.
To get on the ballot, each initiative needed at least 20,510 signatures representing a minimum of 5 percent of the votes cast for governor in the 2000 election from at least 28 counties.
Supporters of raising tobacco taxes have said the move not only will mean more money for important health-related programs, but will also discourage children from taking up smoking.
Healthy Kids Healthy Montana, a coalition of groups backing I-149, said research indicates that the higher tax on cigarettes alone will cut youth smoking by 16 percent.
I-148 would allow Montanans to grow, possess and use limited amounts of marijuana to treat certain medical conditions and combat related pain, nausea, seizures and muscle spasms.
Patients could use marijuana, under medical supervision, to alleviate symptoms related to such diseases as cancer, glaucoma and AIDS.
In addition to I-148 and I-149, other measures on the ballot are:
n CI-96 to add a prohibition on gay marriages to the Montana Constitution.
n I-147 to repeal a ban on use of cyanide in new mining operations.
n CA40 to create in the constitution a $10 million trust fund for combatting noxious weeds.
n CA41 to create a constitutional right to hunt and fish.
n CA42 to extend term limits for legislators from eight years in any 16-year period to 12 years in any 24-year period.
Billings Gazette
July 17, 2004
© The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises.
https://www.billingsgazette.com/ind...ews/2004/07/17/build/state/50-tobacco-tax.inc
That brings to seven the number of initiatives and referendums that will go before voters in the fall general election.
Initiative 149 calls for increasing the 70-cent tax on a pack of cigarettes to $1.70.
The tax on chewing tobacco would jump from 35 cents to 85 cents an ounce, and the tax rate on other tobacco products would double from 25 percent to 50 percent of the wholesale price.
The measure, which would take effect Jan. 1 if passed, would raise an additional $44.7 million in its first full year, according to estimates from the governor's budget office.
Most of the new money - about $38.4 million a year - would be spent on programs providing health insurance to poor children; prescription drugs to poor children, the elderly, chronically ill and disabled; and help to small businesses that offer employee health insurance.
About $6 million would be added to the state treasury and $414,000 made available for state building needs.
The secretary of state's office said Friday it had certified 26,187 petition signatures to qualify the tobacco tax measure in 33 of 56 counties. The medical marijuana measure, known as I-148, had 22,059 certified signatures and qualified in 28 counties.
To get on the ballot, each initiative needed at least 20,510 signatures representing a minimum of 5 percent of the votes cast for governor in the 2000 election from at least 28 counties.
Supporters of raising tobacco taxes have said the move not only will mean more money for important health-related programs, but will also discourage children from taking up smoking.
Healthy Kids Healthy Montana, a coalition of groups backing I-149, said research indicates that the higher tax on cigarettes alone will cut youth smoking by 16 percent.
I-148 would allow Montanans to grow, possess and use limited amounts of marijuana to treat certain medical conditions and combat related pain, nausea, seizures and muscle spasms.
Patients could use marijuana, under medical supervision, to alleviate symptoms related to such diseases as cancer, glaucoma and AIDS.
In addition to I-148 and I-149, other measures on the ballot are:
n CI-96 to add a prohibition on gay marriages to the Montana Constitution.
n I-147 to repeal a ban on use of cyanide in new mining operations.
n CA40 to create in the constitution a $10 million trust fund for combatting noxious weeds.
n CA41 to create a constitutional right to hunt and fish.
n CA42 to extend term limits for legislators from eight years in any 16-year period to 12 years in any 24-year period.
Billings Gazette
July 17, 2004
© The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises.
https://www.billingsgazette.com/ind...ews/2004/07/17/build/state/50-tobacco-tax.inc
