Lawmaker Proposes Raising Cigarette Tax - KXNet - Bismarck/Minot/Williston/Dickinson

At a time when the state is looking at tax cuts one Grand Forks Democrat supports raising taxes.

But it affects only those who choose to "light up."

Donnell Preskey has more on a proposal to increase the cigarette tax.

Representative Eliot Glassheim is a former smoker. It was a tax increase decades ago that finally got him to kick his habit.

Rep. Eliot Glassheim / (D) Grand Forks says, "It was only when calculated how much spent I was spending a year on cigarettes and what I couldn't buy because of smoking that I was able to quit."

Glassheim proposes raising the tax on cigarettes -- not to raise money -- but to give smokers a financial incentive to quit.

In fact, he was shocked when he heard what his proposal could mean almost $60 million to the state.

Glassheim: "$59 million... Oh, that's more than I anticipated. Oh..."

Glassheim's proposal raises the tax on a pack of cigarettes .56 cents -- from .44 to a buck.

He says North Dakota is one of 3 states that hasn't raised its cigarette tax since 1999.

That makes the Peace Garden state the 46th cheapest place to buy a pack of smokes.

Glassheim: "I hate to see people many of whom are addicted, suffer needlessly, have years cut off their lives, have families broken by heart disease, cancer and early death."

While anti-tobacco and health groups support the bill, those who represent businesses do not..

Bill Shalhoob of the Greater North Dakota Chamber says, "This is a bill that will increase taxes in a session where we are talking about decrease taxes. If the goal is to eliminate smoking, then why don't we introduce a bill that bans and prohibits the sale of tobacco in North Dakota?"

Executive Director of the North Dakota Center of Tobacco Prevention, Jeanne Prom, wants tax to be on all tobacco products and be bumped up $2.00 instead of $1.00.