Last year, New Jersey proposed reducing its tax 30 cents, to $2.40 per pack, but hasn’t followed through. And it shouldn’t.
The fiscal concerns aside, tobacco taxes are one of the most effective resources we have in preventing our youth from smoking before the age of 18.
We will pay a high price with more children and teenagers smoking, more lives lost to tobacco and higher tobacco-related health care costs.
The Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids estimates that a 10-cent reduction in the tobacco tax would result in 1,000 new young smokers in New Hampshire. Let’s not let this happen here in New Jersey.
Reducing the tobacco tax sends the wrong message to our youth.
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