USA Today Publishes BIPPS: Opposing Cigarette Tax Increases

High cigarette tax hurts the poor

Bluegrass Institute President Jim Waters was asked to provide the Opposing View for Thursday’s lead editorial in USA Today.

He makes the case against raising cigarette taxes to reduce smoking rates.

“Education, making smoking less culturally acceptable and appealing to citizens' personal responsibility have been effective in reducing smoking, particularly among the young,” he writes. “Smoking rates among Kentucky's teens dropped dramatically during the decade even before Kentucky last raised cigarette taxes in 2009.”Read the op-ed here.