CHL's coverage of the Proposition 29 vote reflects news coverage from early Wednesday morning. It does not represent a final vote count. We will continue to monitor the vote. -- The Editors
On Wednesday, the Secretary of State's office reported that a tobacco tax hike ballot initiative was narrowly defeated in Tuesday's election, the San Francisco Chronicle reports (Ho, San Francisco Chronicle, 6/6).
According to CNN, 50.8% of voters voted against the measure, while 49.2% voted in favor of it (Karkaria, Atlanta Business Chronicle, 6/6).
Details of Ballot Initiative
Proposition 29 would have increased California's tax on cigarettes by $1 per pack to raise funds for cancer research and smoking cessation programs.
It was written by the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association and the American Lung Association.
Supporters of the initiative said the tax increase would have generated about $600 million annually to fund research on smoking-related conditions such as cancer, heart disease and stroke.
They noted that it also would have produced $179 million each year for tobacco cessation, prevention and enforcement initiatives (California Healthline, 5/31).
Opponents said that funds raised by Prop. 29 would have create a new bureaucracy and could have been spent on out-of-state research (California Healthline, 5/24).
The tobacco industry and its allies contributed about $42.6 million toward a campaign to defeat Proposition 29, while supporters of the tax hike proposal, led by a national health coalition, spent nearly $9 million to advocate for the ballot initiative (California Healthline, 5/25).