Would add $1 for each cigarette pack, raising millions

— Cycling legend Lance Armstrong isn’t accustomed to being the underdog.

But the seven-time Tour de France winner faces a steep climb in his quest to raise tobacco taxes in California to fund cancer research.

If voters approve the tax measure Armstrong is championing in the June primary, smokers in the nation’s most populous state will pay an extra $1 for each pack they buy, raising hundreds of millions of dollars.

The money would go to a new committee that would fund research projects, smoking-reduction programs and tobacco law enforcement. It also would support the infrastructure to fuel that work.

But higher taxes on cigarettes and other tobacco products could mean huge losses for Philip Morris USA, RJ Reynolds and the other major tobacco companies, which are bankrolling the campaign against Proposition 29. The industry calls it a badly flawed measure that will force California taxpayers to pay for a bloated bureaucracy that could send research dollars out of state.

The tobacco companies and anti-tax groups that oppose the initiative had raised nearly $39.8 million as of May 7, while Armstrong and his supporters had raised $4.9 million.

“It doesn’t matter how much you support the tobacco companies’ right to do business; they’re on the wrong side of this,” Armstrong said in an interview. “We’re still losing hundreds of thousands of Americans every year to cancer. On the one hand, that can be very demoralizing. But for me it’s very motivating.”

Armstrong beat testicular cancer that had spread to his brain and lungs more than a decade ago. Since then, he has thrown himself into anti-smoking campaigns nationwide and served on the President’s Cancer Panel.

His Livestrong Foundation contributed $1.5 million to support the initiative in California, one of three states that haven’t raised taxes on tobacco since 2000.

The independent Legislative Analyst’s Office says Proposition 29 would generate about $735 million a year in revenue if voters approve it. That would be in addition to fees collected through the state’s 25-cent tobacco tax, which raised $298 million in the last fiscal year for cancer research.

Mike Genest, a former state finance director, wrote an economic study for the opposition campaign and said voters need to weigh more than concerns about cancer. He said Proposition 29 could pose a future burden on taxpayers if the bureaucracy it creates cannot be supported as cigarette tax revenue declines. He also said it could end up raising millions of dollars yet produce little research that develops cancer treatments.


