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Increased cigarette tax could benefit

After World War II, when cheese and butter were still prized commodities and men would pawn their Sunday suits after wearing them to church, there was at least one commodity in Britain that was available cheaply and abundantly – cigarettes.

Breathing in some nicotine surely helped the British overcome the deprivations of daily life, and by 1949, 81 percent of men and 39 percent of women smoked.

Within a couple of decades, those smokers surely put a strain on the National Health Service that was inaugurated just after the war’s end as they dealt with cancer and heart disease caused by their habit.

The number of smokers never climbed quite as high in the United States in those days, but cigarettes were equally as abundant and could be had for a quarter per pack.

Anyone still part of the dwindling cohort of smokers knows those days are long gone. The estimated 20 percent of men and 15 percent of women in America who can’t shake their addiction have been paying considerably more to light up as a result of taxes that have been piled onto cigarettes in recent years.

In Pennsylvania, smokers will have to pay even more as a result of an additional $1 tax on cigarettes that went into effect last week.

Lawmakers agreed to the extra $1 tax as a way to balance the commonwealth’s $31.5 billion budget.

It’s expected to yield $430 million, and make a pack of cigarettes cost somewhere north of $7 in Pennsylvania, though one assumes a certain percentage of determined smokers will venture over state lines to buy cigarettes in West Virginia, Ohio or any bordering state where they are cheaper.

It goes without saying lawmakers shouldn’t count on the same amount of money flowing into Harrisburg’s coffers year after year.

Cigarette smoking cuts lives short, and those departed puffers are not being replaced by new customers.

But, also, if a tax on cigarettes and other tobacco products is to be considered successful, the amount of revenue it brings should go down because more and more smokers decide they are paying too much and decide to quit.

And no one except tobacco companies would deny that’s a good thing.

In a story that appeared in the Observer-Reporter, some local smokers said the $1 increase on a pack of cigarettes will be enough for them to kick the habit once and for all.

Don “Cowboy” Johnson told our Natalie Reid Miller he was tired of hacking when he gets up in the morning after 35 years of smoking and “that extra dollar is just more incentive.

There are a number of people spending more on cigarettes than food. It’s like a drug addiction. It is a drug addiction.”

Indeed, several studies highlight the fact that increasing taxes on cigarettes reduces the number of smokers.

When the federal tax was increased 62 cents in 2009, the number of teenage smokers tumbled quickly from 13 percent to 10 percent, according to a study from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

And while some, including state Rep. Rick Saccone, a Republican from Elizabeth Township, have argued that a cigarette tax hits low-income residents the hardest, it helps all of us in the long run thanks to lower health care costs and fewer nonsmokers suffering the effects of secondhand smoke.

The 2016-17 state budget leaves a lot of long-festering issues unresolved, such as reforming pensions and bringing the state liquor store system into the 21st century.

However, if the increased tax on cigarettes reduces the number of smokers, lawmakers should be commended for putting it in place.

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