Position
The South Dakota Tobacco-Free Kids Network supports adequate, sustained funding to develop, implement and evaluate a comprehensive, “best practices”, statewide tobacco prevention and reduction program. The Network also supports the use of tobacco money, such as tobacco taxes and earnings from the state’s tobacco settlement, to fund prevention and cessation programs.
Background
State tobacco programs must be adequately funded and comprehensive to be effective to address the state’s high tobacco use rates. · Tobacco use rates among youth, Native Americans, and pregnant women in South Dakota are among the worst in the country.[i] · Successful state programs have taken a comprehensive approach to addressing tobacco addiction and funded programs on a sustained basis to deliver significant declines in tobacco use and related health costs.[ii] · South Dakota raised its excise tax on cigarettes in 2007 from 53 cents to $1.53 per pack and increased the tax on other tobacco products from 10% of the wholesale price to 35% of the wholesale price. This increase was approved in the 2006 general election with 61% support of the voters. The new revenue generated by the increase was specifically dedicated to funding tobacco prevention and cessation and provide additional resources for healthcare, education and property tax relief. · The recently passed tobacco tax increase will generate $5 million annually for the Department of Health’s Tobacco Prevention and Cessation program. This money must be invested in a comprehensive and sustained program to offer maximum opportunity for maximum results in decreasing tobacco use.
The sustainability of adequate tobacco program funding is critical.
Successful, comprehensive programs require adequate time and resources to produce results. The recently passed tobacco tax increase specifically dedicates $5 million annually for tobacco prevention and cessation efforts. This dedicated revenue must remain available to the Department of Health to address tobacco use rates and not allocated for other purposes to ensure the success of program efforts.
No state tobacco settlement funds have been dedicated to prevent and reduce tobacco use in South Dakota.
· South Dakota’s portion of the multi-state tobacco settlement agreement with tobacco manufacturers resulted in projected payments totaling more than $650 million to the State of South Dakota between 2001 and 2025. In lieu of receiving annual payments, the Governor and the 2001 Legislature opted to sell the right to the annual settlement payments in return for an upfront, one-time payment of $275.5 million, which was placed in the Education Enhancement Trust Fund. None of these funds have been specifically dedicated to fund tobacco prevention and reduction programs.
Statewide comprehensive tobacco prevention programs produce results.
States that have implemented comprehensive tobacco control programs have experienced dramatic declines in tobacco use, even among teenagers and high-risk groups such as pregnant women. Examples include[iii]:
· Between 2000 and 2002, current cigarette use in Minnesota declined by 21% among middle school students and by 11% among high school students. In addition, current use of any tobacco product declined by 11% among both high school and middle school students over the same time period. · In the first four years of the Florida program, from 1998 to 2002, current smoking declined by 50% (from 18.5% to 9.2%) among middle school students and by 35% (from 27.4% to 17.8%) among high school students, resulting in almost 75,000 fewer youth smokers. · Between 1990 and 1999, smoking among pregnant women in Massachusetts declined by more than 50% (from 25% to 11%). · Between 1999 and 2002, smoking among public high school students in Mississippi declined by 29%, from 32.5% to 23.1%. · Smoking among Maine’s high school students declined 48% between 1997 and 2003, falling from 39.2% to 20.5%.
Tobacco addiction costs every South Dakotan.
Any anticipated benefits from other uses of the settlement funds or increases in the state excise tax on tobacco without first providing adequate funding for tobacco programs will be overshadowed by the continuing rise in tobacco-caused health and other costs, currently estimated at over $450 million annually in South Dakota.[iv] That cost is borne by taxpayers, employers and families regardless of whether they use tobacco products.
South Dakota Tobacco-Free Kids Network, 12/06/06
[i] U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), State Tobaco Activities Tracking and Evaluation System, Youth Risk Behavior Survey, Cigarette Use (Youth) 2003; U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Smoking During Pregnancy – U.S. 1990-2002. October 2004. South Dakota Department of Health, The Health Behaviors of South Dakotans 2003: A Report of the South Dakota Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance SystemJune 2005; South Dakota Department of Education and Cultural Affairs and South Dakota Department of Human Services, South Dakota Native American Middle and High School Youth Risk Behavior Survey Report 2000. [ii] U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Best Practices for Comprehensive Tobacco Control Program, August 1999. [iii] Florida Department of Health, 2001, Florida Youth Tobacco Survey, Volume 4, Report 1, October 22, 20001. ; Abt Associates, Inc., Independent Evaluation of the Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program: Seventh Annual Report, January 1994 to June 2000; Mississippi 2001 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, Mississippi State Department of Health, January 3, 2002, Pierre, JP et al., “Has the California Tobacco Control Program Reduced Smoking?” Journal of the American Medical Association, September 9, 1998. Volume 280, No. 10; Minnesota 2002 Youth Tobacco Survey, Minnesota Department of Health, December 2002; Maine 2001 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, Maine Department of Human Services, December 12, 2001. [iv]National Center for Tobacco Free Kids, Toll of Tobacco on South Dakota, 2005 |
