Campaign Opened to Put Cigarette Tax Increase on Ballot

SACRAMENTO — A campaign to place a 25-cents-per-pack state cigarette tax increase on the November, 1988, ballot was launched here Wednesday by the Coalition for a Healthy California, which includes health and school groups.

Organizers said the measure could raise $600 million to $800 million a year for educational programs to discourage smoking and to finance research and treatment of tobacco-related diseases.

Assemblyman Lloyd G. Connelly (D-Sacramento) called the initiative “probably the most significant attack on the health effects of tobacco that’s ever been launched in the United States.”

The proposal would also put an equivalent levy on cigars and other tobacco products not currently taxed by California. The current state tax on cigarettes is 10 cents a pack.