Missouri voters will decide whether to raise the tobacco tax this November

(Missouri Digital News) -- This November, Missourians will vote on whether to approve a cigarette tax hike.

The initiative, Proposition B, would put an additional 73 cents per pack tax on cigarettes, increasing the total state tax to 90 cents per pack. Missouri currently has the lowest tobacco tax in the nation at 17 cents a pack.      

Prop B is estimated to bring in $283 million to $423 million a year, according to an estimate from the state auditor. The proceeds would be divided between K-12 education, higher education and tobacco prevention and education programs.   

Supporters of Prop B, like Rep. Chris Kelly, D-Columbia, said increasing the tax will discourage smoking in Missouri and provide important education funds.

"For potential teenage smokers, there's a strong correlation between price and starting to smoke. And so, we know the tax will produce revenue that we need, and we also hope that it will discourage teenage smokers," Kelly said.

Ron Leone, executive director of the Missouri Petroleum Marketers and Convenience Store Association, said Prop B's 760 percent cigarette tax increase is devastating.       

"It will hurt Missouri consumers, it will force small businesses to close, it will cause people to lose their jobs and it will generate less tax revenue for local and state coffers that are already stretched thin because of the great recession," Leone said.     

Twenty percent of the proceeds from the tax would go toward tobacco abstinence programs, 50 percent for K-12 education and 30 percent to higher education.