Big Tobacco sat out I-773 fight

The Associated Press

SEATTLE — Tobacco companies kept a low profile during a campaign to raise the state’s cigarette tax because they’re short on cash and didn’t think they could win, an industry spokesman says.

Mark Smith, representing Brown &Williamson, said the industry is hurting from its 1998 agreement to settle litigation brought by the states, so it couldn’t put up much of a fight against Initiative 773, which raised the cigarette tax by 60 cents a pack.

Brown &Williamson makes Kool, Lucky Strike and GPC, among other brands.

"We don’t have a lot of money to spend," Smith told The Seattle Times last week.

Plus, he said, "We didn’t think it was winnable, given the level of animosity toward tobacco companies."

According to records filed with the state Public Disclosure Commission, backers of the initiative outspent opponents nearly 9 to 1: $1.8 million to $216,000.

Three years ago in California during a campaign to raise the tobacco tax 50 cents a pack, the industry outspent anti-tobacco advocates 3 to 1. The industry spent about $30 million, but voters raised the tax anyway.

The industry also spent heavily to campaign against similar measures in other states since 1990. But voting outcomes were mixed.

Tom Huff, a former state representative who served as co-chairman of the No on 773 Coalition, criticized the industry for not contributing more to the campaign.

Two out of three Washington voters supported the measure, which takes effect Jan. 1. It is expected to generate more than $100 million in revenue annually, most of it earmarked to improve state-subsidized health insurance for low-income people.

The measure adds 60 cents a pack to the cost of cigarettes, for a total of $1.42 1/2in state taxes per pack. The increase makes Washington the most expensive state in the nation in which to be a cigarette smoker. It also increases the tax on other tobacco products, such as cigars, raising the retail price about 30 percent.

In discussing the industry decision to lie low during the

I-773 battle, Smith also credited "the rather shrewd campaign by the anti-tobacco industry," a reference to groups such as the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and the American Lung Association of Washington.

He predicted an increase in smuggling in Washington state as a result of the initiative.

Smith also criticized elected officials and the media for not doing more to stop the initiative, which he called "bad law" and "shameful public policy."

"It is a source of pride to me that our voters have seen fit to approve a measure that is good for our health and that is good for our kids," countered Astrid Berg, executive director of the American Lung Association of Washington.

"I’d say the shameful aspect … is that kids for whom tobacco use is illegal are specifically targeted by the industry, which desires to addict them into lifelong practice that results in devastation of health and that in fact costs the state of Washington $1.3 billion on an annual basis," Berg said.