Steyer gives $1 million to anti-smoking campaign
SACRAMENTO — Billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer on Thursday contributed $1 million to support a proposed ballot measure that would raise California’s cigarette tax by $2 a pack.
Steyer, a potential candidate for governor in 2018, said his donation to the Save Lives California campaign is aimed at addressing health concerns about smoking.
“We have a moral responsibility to stand up to tobacco companies and keep kids from becoming lifetime smokers, and we can do that by raising the tobacco tax,” Steyer, a Bay Area philanthropist, said in a statement.
The campaign seeking to put a tobacco tax measure on the November 2016 ballot includes the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Assn., the California Medical Assn., the American Lung Assn. and the Service Employees International Union.
The money raised by the initiative, if it passes, would help pay for treatment of and research on cancer and other tobacco-related diseases. During the summer, the state Legislature considered but did not pass a bill to put a tobacco-tax increase on the state ballot.
The tobacco industry has spent millions of dollars to defeat previous attempts to raise the tobacco tax, including one in 2006.
That year, the industry spent $66.6 million against a ballot measure that would have raised the tax by $2.60 per pack. Supporters spent $14 million. The measure failed.
Californians pay 87 cents per pack in state taxes, far less than New Yorkers, who pay $4.35 a pack.
“Big Tobacco profits from a product that kills millions of people around the world every year and is the leading cause of preventable death in California,” Steyer said. “The best way to prevent these smoking deaths is by protecting children from ever becoming addicted to this deadly product in the first place.”
A spokesman for the tobacco giant Altria did not respond to a request for comment Thursday but recently said his company was reviewing the proposed initiative.
The donation provided Thursday is expected to help the signature-gathering effort. The campaign, which previously received a $2-million loan from the California State Council of Service Employees, must obtain the signatures of 365,880 registered voters to qualify the measure for the ballot.