AMCNO Participates in Tobacco Advocacy Day at the Statehouse

The advocacy day participants notified legislators that Ohio’s laws governing tobacco have not kept up with the rapidly changing tobacco products market. As a result, many tobacco products are either skirting existing laws or are not covered at all. Participants in the event were asked to press legislators to consider increasing the cigarette tax and equalizing the “other tobacco products’ (OTP) tax in order to fund tobacco prevention and cessation programs across the state. Legislators were informed that the use of non-cigarette forms of tobacco is rising, especially among youth since these products are candy flavored and cheap because of the low OTP tax rate. Equalizing the OTP tax to the current cigarette rate would generate $50 million annually. Other concepts mentioned to legislators were reclassifying filtered little cigars as cigarettes which would raise the tax on these products, the elimination of tobacco tax credits which are discounts for cigarette tax stamps and the discount for timely payment of the other tobacco products’ excise tax – unnecessary perks for tobacco companies that could provide the state with almost $3 million over the biennium. Instituting high-tech tax stamps in Ohio could also help since high-tech tax stamps are difficult to counterfeit and reduce cigarette tax evasion, increase government revenue and stop illegal cigarette sales at below-market prices. This funding should be used to continue tobacco prevention and cessation programs. In a recent poll, 74.9% of Ohioans supported taxing all tobacco products at the same rate and using the new funding for tobacco programs. Participants in the Lobby Day reminded their legislators that through sustained state investments in tobacco prevention, Ohio can save Medicaid dollars by roughly $16 million for direct healthcare costs and over $27 million in workplace productivity losses.

In the meetings with our area legislators, it became clear to the AMCNO representatives that adding new taxes or raising taxes would probably not be an option at this time, however, legislators seemed open to further discussion on instituting high-tech tax stamps, reclassifying little cigars as cigarettes and eliminating tobacco tax credits. The AMCNO plans to remain actively engaged in working with the Investing in Tobacco Free Youth coalition in an effort to make changes in the Ohio law in order to fund tobacco prevention and cessation programs in our community and across the state.