UNC poll shows support for higher cigarette tax

North Carolinians want more taxes.

At least on cigarettes.

At 45 cents to the pack, the State of North Carolina has one of the lowest tax rates on cigarettes in the country.

However, a poll conducted by UNC’s Gillings School of Global Public Health has shown that nearly 50 percent of those surveyed back raising the state’s cigarette tax to the national average of $1.34 per pack.

Of the 700 randomly surveyed N.C. adults, the highest support for the tax was found in non-smokers at 60.3 percent, those with an annual income over $50,000 at 59.3 percent, and persons with a post-secondary education at 57.9 percent.

For those likely to vote in the next state and local elections, 51.2 percent supported the idea of a tax increase.

The survey results represent a continuation of recent trends.

“We have increased the tobacco tax in three steps. First up to 30 cents/pack in 2007; 35 cents in 2008 and 45 cents/pack in 2009,” N.C. Rep. Verla Insko, D-Orange, stated in an e-mail.

Despite tobacco’s long-established position as one of the state’s largest crops, North Carolina is becoming ever more smoke free.

With recent laws and regulations ranging from smoking bans in workplaces, to bars, to college campuses, The Great North State’s historical relationship with tobacco, from a social and legislative perspective, appears to be getting stubbed out.

“The attitude change about tobacco was a slow process that included many studies and reports and actions,” Insko said.

Polls have shown since a 2005 tax proposal during the Easley administration that North Carolinians are in favor of higher taxing for the purpose of producing higher state revenue, decreasing numbers in teen smokers, and funding public health programs.

Joseph Lee, a Social Research Specialist at the UNC school of Medicine, is an adamant supporter of policies that promote the public’s health.

“Policies like these — when studied in workplaces — cause a one-third reduction in cigarette consumption,” Lee stated in an e-mail.

Although Lee said a 100 percent smoke-free campus would be optimal, 37 N.C. colleges and Universities have committed to some form of an on-campus smoking policy.

“Our goal was to create a healthy campus no matter what it looked like,” said Kathy Carstens, director of Student Health Services at Greensboro College which has its own smoking regulations.

Greensboro’s policy is an absolute smoking ban on campus.

“Our enrollment numbers have not gone down,” Carstens said.
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Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu._