Under Gov. Mike DeWine鈥檚 initial budget, a hike of taxes on cigarettes and e-cigarettes would have funded a child tax credit, but Ohio House GOP lawmakers rejected that idea, saying they wouldn鈥檛 vote to raise any taxes.
Cancer prevention advocates are pushing to at least restore the tobacco tax increase in as the Senate considers the budget bill.
Jill McFarland is mom to three girls. When her youngest daughter, Elloise, was just nine months old, McFarland was diagnosed with breast cancer. It鈥檚 metastasized since 2015, but is stable right now, McFarland said.
McFarland lost her own mother to lung cancer just days before Mother鈥檚 Day in 2023.
鈥淲hen she was admitted, she looked at me one day and said, 鈥業s it crazy that I want a cigarette right now?鈥� That was really hard,鈥� she said in an interview. 鈥淪he couldn鈥檛 quit. When COVID hit, it even worsened, because she was just in her house, just smoking.鈥�
McFarland and her oldest daughter, Isabella, said they believe higher taxes on tobacco would discourage more Ohioans from starting smoking鈥攑articularly minors, who might find it even more cost prohibitive. McFarland鈥檚 mom took on the habit in the 1960s, as a teenager.
The McFarlands and other advocates lobbied state lawmakers on the issue last Tuesday, arguing that just last month, the GOP-majority Indiana General Assembly hiked the tobacco tax by $2: from $0.99 to nearly $3.
鈥淭hey said, we have too many holes in our budget, we have to fill it somehow, that鈥檚 why we鈥檙e increasing the tax. I mean, $2 is quite an increase. We鈥檙e only asking for $1.50 in Ohio,鈥� said Leo Almeida, lobbyist for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.
DeWine proposed raising the per cigarette pack rate from $1.60 to $3.10, a $1.50 increase, and raising the wholesale tax on other products from 17% to 42%, according to budget documents.
HB 96 is in the Senate, which is targeting a June 12 floor vote, according to Sen. Jerry Cirino (R-Kirtland). It鈥檚 due to DeWine by June 30.
