The Ketchikan Gateway Borough has drafted an ordinance that would impose a $3 tax on each pack of cigarettes sold in the borough. The ordinance would also tax other tobacco products, such as e-cigarettes, at 75 percent of their wholesale price.
The Borough Assembly voted July 6 to move forward with the ordinance, but it wasn’t endorsed by all assembly members. In fact, the same motion failed in an earlier vote, when some supporting Assembly members were absent and not able to participate in the decision.
During that meeting, assemblymember Jim Van Horn called in from Juneau, where his wife was finishing radiation treatment for lung cancer. Van Horn said he is a lung cancer survivor himself, and lost his first wife to lung cancer.
“This insidious thing called cancer is caused by smoking, but at the same time, I feel that $3 a pack is too excessive,” he told the Assembly
Those opposing the tobacco tax say it’s a revenue grab, and assemblymember Glen Thompson said that people on the right and left tend to like “sin” taxes.
“Conservatives like to legislate morality and liberals tend to like to control the economy, so this has something that both sides really like,” he said. “But the poor guy in the middle is the one paying the tax.”
Thompson suggested increasing a general tax, such as the sales tax, if the borough needs more revenue, rather than targeting tobacco users.
The proposed tobacco tax would generate an estimated $1.2 million a year in new revenue. The draft ordinance calls for directing up to 15 percent of income toward smoking cessation programs. The rest would be divided between the Borough and the City of Ketchikan, based on population.
The ordinance also calls for an annual report showing how the proceeds of the tax have been used, and its effectiveness on reducing tobacco use in the community.
