Context for Tobacco Prevention in Wyoming There is no safe level of exposure to tobacco smoke. Each year, an estimated 800 Wyoming adults die prematurely from smoking-attributable illnesses such as heart disease, lung diseases, and cancers (primarily of the respiratory system; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2014a). In 2010, tobacco-related healthcare cost Wyoming […]
Two of the four key goals the Wyoming Tobacco Prevention and Control Program (TPCP) shares with the federal tobacco prevention and control program are: (a) increasing the number of people quitting tobacco use (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2015) and (b) preventing young people from starting to use tobacco (CDC, 2014b). Taxing cigarettes is a well-documented and effective policy for governments to make further progress on both of these goals (CDC, 2014a; Hyland et al., 2005).Taxation encourages tobacco users to quit or use less tobacco by increasing the price of cigarettes. Economic studies have demonstrated that increasing the unit price for tobacco products by 20% would reduce overall consumption of tobacco products by 10%, the percentage of adults who use tobacco by 4%, and the percentage of young people who start to use tobacco by 9% (see Guide to Community Preventive Service, 2015, for a summary of this research).In 2014, WYSAC estimated that a $1.00 price increase in Wyoming would decrease the amount of cigarettes Wyoming adults smoke by 6% while generating $30.1 million (adjusted for inflation to 2018 dollars) of additional revenue during the first year (WYSAC, 2014).
Executive Summary
Tax Revenue
Every state that has implemented a significant tax increase has also realized a significant increase in cigarette tax revenue (Chaloupka, Straif, & Leon, 2010; Farelly, Nimsch & James, 2003).