Proposed cigarette tax increase to reach November ballot

Smoker Friendly in Colorado Springs is a haven for those addicted to a habit they just can’t break.

Smoker Kathleen Morris hopes if voters put an additional $1.75 tax one a pack, the price spike will help her to quit.

“I really can’t afford it,” Morris said. “It would be that much better for me, I could breathe again.”

Healthier Colorado gathered the required signatures for a ballot question that would nearly triple the cigarette tax statewide from 0.84 to $2.59 a pack.

Navin Linzy works at Smoker Friendly and argues raising the tax will only create a backlash.

“Increasing the tax on the cigarette will not help,” Linzy said. “The next thing we will do is, we’ll find cheaper cigarettes to buy. They’ll be a lot more harmful because we don’t know what’s inside the tobacco of the cheaper cigarettes we get from other places sometimes.”

Supporters say it will influence kids to do the right thing.

“We’re hoping people will vote for this because there will be a decrease in kids who will start smoking, adults will stop smoking and for those who continue, it will bring an additional to the state in this first year alone,” Kathleen Saltmarsh-Voss with the local chapter of the American Heart Association said.

The Secretary of State’s office has 30 days to validate the petition signatures and then the cigarette tax will be in front of voters in November. If it passes, smokers who light up a pack a day will pay more than $630 a year in taxes alone.