The governor contends the per-pack hike would raise an additional $40.3 million -- and also cut down on smoking.

08:19 AM EST on Thursday, February 26, 2004

Journal photo / Bill Murphy Smokers like Brian Huda would pay an additional 75 cents per pack, bringing the Rhode Island price for cigarettes to $6.10 a pack; money for the state's tobacco-control program would be cut.

Governor Carcieri proposes to raise the cigarette tax by 75 cents per pack, bringing the Rhode Island price for cigarettes to $6.10 a pack -- higher than the current price in any other state.

Carcieri contends that the cigarette-tax increase would raise an additional $40.3 million -- and also cut down on smoking. About 23 percent of Rhode Island adults smoke.

At the same time the governor wants to cut $500,000 from the Health Department's tobacco-control program. That would mean fewer counselors trained in youth smoking cessation, less anti-smoking advertising, and less treatment available for adults seeking to quit.

Even so, Health Director Patricia A. Nolan considers the reduction "not a bad bargain," provided the tax is enacted -- because raising cigarette prices is highly effective in getting people to quit and preventing people from starting to smoke.

Carcieri's senior budget analyst, Paul L. Dion, estimates that, if the tax is enacted, 19,000 people will quit smoking and the number of cigarette packs sold in Rhode Island will drop by 6.9 million to 61.4 million packs in the first year.

A pack of cigarettes now costs $5.22 in Rhode Island and Connecticut, and $5.73 in Massachusetts. (The 75-cent tax increase would lead to a total price increase of 88 cents because of mandatory markups and the sales tax, which are based on percentages.)

-- FELICE J. FREYER