As a state lawmaker, it’s important to me to keep taxes low. But it’s even more important to save lives.
The leading cause of preventable death in Iowa is tobacco use, costing us 5,100 lives ― those are our families and friends ― each year. In fact, smoking kills more Iowans than everything else combined. We have the second highest cancer rate in the country, and nearly one-third of our cancer deaths are due to tobacco use. Smoking is a burden on all of us, amounting to nearly $1.5 billion a year in health care costs to Iowa taxpayers.
So, despite my distaste for raising taxes, I’ve introduced a bill that would increase Iowa’s cigarette tax by $1.50 and modernize our tobacco taxes by including the most popular forms of tobacco use, e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches…