The difference in lives and dollars saved between a 30-cent per pack increase and a 70-cent per pack increase is stark. A 70-cent per pack cigarette tax increase (as compared to a 30-cent increase) would have prevented an additional 21,900 Kentucky kids alive today from becoming smokers, saved an additional 11,200 Kentucky resident from smoking-caused deaths, produced an additional $532 million in long-term health care savings, and raised an additional $115 million in new revenue each year.

In addition to the obvious health and financial benefits, the larger tax also enjoyed significant public support. A poll released last month found that 68 percent of Kentucky voters supported a 70-cent increase in the cigarette tax — and 69 percent supported an even greater increase of $1 a pack.

When the 30-cent tax increase goes into effect April 1, Kentucky's tax of 60 cents per pack will remain well below the average state cigarette tax of $1.19 per pack. Since January 1, 2002, 44 states have increased cigarette taxes, some more than once. Twenty-seven states have a state tax rate of $1 or more per pack.

Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States. In Kentucky, tobacco claims 7,800 lives each year and costs the state $1.5 billion annually in health care bills, including $487 million in Medicaid payments alone. Currently, 28.2 percent of Kentucky adults smoke, which is the highest smoking rate in the country. Government expenditures related to tobacco amount to a hidden tax of $595 every year on every Kentucky household. Twenty-six percent of Kentucky high school students smoke, and 6,500 more kids become smokers every year.