By RAELYNN RICARTE
News staff writer
October 19, 2007

Measure 50 supporters are excited about the possibility of creating a new government health-care program to serve children.

But opponents of the ballot proposal believe its passage on Nov. 6 will result in a budget crisis and bureaucratic snarl.

The Hood River County Commission on Children and Families is 100 percent behind the measure. The agency believes the added tax on cigarettes — 84.5 cents — will help the state fulfill a moral and economic obligation to its citizens.

“We know Measure 50 will reduce smoking and it will provide more kids with health insurance coverage — so it’s a win-win proposition,” said Maija Yasui, HRCCCF’s prevention program coordinator.

Scott Slattum, a member of the HRCCCF board of directors, said passage of Measure 50 will provide 117,000 more children statewide with health care coverage. He said the Oregon Health Division also estimates 15,100 adults will quit smoking if the price of cigarettes goes up.

“We can stop 29,400 kids from becoming smokers just by raising costs,” said Slattum, a youth minister for St. Mary’s Catholic Church.

Carol York, a local resident campaigning against Measure 50, also billed as the Healthy Kids Initiative, said the premise is flawed. She said the tax proposal is “contradictory because it relies on reducing smoking while expecting smokers to pay the bills.”

But even more troublesome, said York, is the precedent that could be set by amending the state constitution to tax a single product. She said the constitution, as the supreme law of the state, is intended to delineate the role of government and the rights of citizens — not institute new entitlement programs.

According to reports, if Measure 50 passes, the state tax on a pack of cigarettes would rise to $2.02, the highest in the nation. Cigars and other tobacco products would be taxed more as well.

The Legislative Fiscal office shows that 72.3 percent of the new funds would be used for the Healthy Kids program. The balance would be channeled through the Department of Human Services into other health and prevention programs.

J.L. Wilson, spokesperson for Oregonians against the Blank Check, disagrees with the state’s assessment. He said language in the measure requires that less than 30 percent of funds raised by the new tax be dedicated to Healthy Kids. And almost $65 million of the revenue doesn’t have to be spent on children’s health care at all.

He said a report compiled by Dr. William B. Conerly reflects that the Healthy Kids program will be running a $211 million deficit by 2015-17.

Slattum said OHD has estimated that smoking costs Oregon $287 million in yearly state Medicaid spending alone. He said annual health care expenditures caused by tobacco or exposure to secondhand smoke currently run about $1.1 billion, and that cost savings in these areas, and the ability to plan ahead for a decline in smoking, will keep the program up and running.

“This is an issue that I’ve become very passionate about,” he said. “So, it’s difficult to figure out why anyone would not be in favor of Measure 50.”

York said no one in opposition to Measure 50 disagrees that all children should have health care coverage. She said those costs should be shouldered by all taxpayers and not borne only by smokers, estimated to be about 20 percent of Oregon’s population.

“The Oregon Legislature had a budget surplus of $2.5 billion this year. So, why wasn’t some of that money used to fund the Healthy Kids program instead of targeting one class of citizens for a new tax?” she asked.

She said Democrats in the Legislature could not gain the 60 percent vote necessary to raise the cigarette tax. So, they chose to bypass taxpayer safeguards and seek a constitutional amendment. York said that, if Measure 50 passes, voters will have to approve another amendment before the tax can be modified, even if the revenue isn’t meeting program costs.

“Just because it’s a sympathetic cause, it doesn’t make it right to abuse the constitution,” she said.