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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A $1 per-pack cigarettes tax increase won approval in a state Senate committee Tuesday, but the panel may just be blowing smoke. The increase is a long way from passage, and Gov. Charlie Crist would likely extinguish the idea anyway.
Health advocates have said for several years that the best way to lower the number of people who get sick from smoking is to raise the cost of the habit. To that end, a measure sponsored by Sen. Ted Deutch would raise the state cigarette tax from 34 cents a pack to $1.34.
Deutch, a Boca Raton Democrat, is well aware of the aversion to higher taxes in the Republican-dominated Legislature. But some thought that with tax collections plummeting and lawmakers slashing budgets for a list of critical state services, this might be the best chance in years for increasing the tax, which is one of the lowest in the nation. But many Republicans in the House are still dead set against raising the cigarette tax _ which would hit the roughly 17 percent of adult Floridians and 15 percent of teens who smoke. Crist added his voice to the opposition Tuesday when asked whether he supported the increase, answering simply, "No." Deutch said the proposal isn't like most tax increases, simply meant to deal with a budget shortfall. It's more of a user fee that makes people pay for the health care they're likely to need if they smoke. Most of the money raised by the $1 billion a year or more extra that would come into state coffers would go into specific health care programs.
Ultimately, though, it's a bill meant to reduce the need for health care, Deutch said. "This bill is a public health bill," Deutch said. "It is not something we dreamed up to try to balance the budget. It is something we introduced to try to save lives." The American Cancer Society estimates that 123,000 Floridians might stop smoking as a result of a $1 increase. Health advocates say that studies show that the more it costs to smoke, the more people quit, especially cash-strapped kids. Noting that most people start smoking before they're 18, a higher cost might prevent even more people from smoking, Deutch said. The average cigarette tax around the country is about $1.11, and 14 states have increased their tax in the last two years, according to the Tobacco Merchants Association, an industry group. About 20 other states are considering increases.
 Florida's cigarette tax rate last year was higher than only six other states. The lowest rate is in South Carolina, which taxes them at 7 cents a pack, but a 50-cent increase is under consideration there. New York state recently decided to raise its tax by $1.25 to $2.75 a pack, the highest in the nation. New York City charges an additional $1.50, which will bring the cost of a typical pack there to $9. A train of advocates, from the American Heart Association, to the Florida Medical Association to the AARP are lined up in favor of the bill. The Senate Health Policy Committee took only limited testimony because of time, but among the people who had signed up to speak were someone who identified herself as a cancer survivor and someone who simply said she was "a mom."
The committee approved the bill 4-1. It's far from ready for a full Senate, though, with four more committees scheduled to hear it. That makes its prospects dim, with the legislative session scheduled to end in just over two weeks. The only public opposition in the Senate committee on Tuesday came from Associated Industries of Florida, one of the state's largest business lobbies, which is generally against tax increases. "It's a $1.1 billion increase in revenue borne by 20 percent of the population who smoke," said the organization's lobbyist, Jose Gonzalez. "It's just not fair to do that. There's already dollars that go into health care for these folks." Other opponents, including the lone "no" vote on the Senate committee, Sen. Charlie Dean, R-Inverness, say that raising cigarette taxes will only push smokers to go to the Internet, Indian reservations or other states to buy smokes.
The cigarette industry warns that when smoking taxes go up, black market cigarette sales go up. Criminal gangs stock up in low-tax states like Virginia and Missouri _ or Florida _ truck the cigarettes north and illegally resell them in high-tax states like Michigan and New Jersey. Deutch also noted that other Republican-controlled legislatures around the country have increased cigarette taxes, including in Texas, which increased its cigarette tax from 41 cents a pack to $1.41 in 2006.