CHARLESTON, W.Va., March 7 (UPI) -- West Virginia smokers can expect to pay more for a pack of their favorite cigarettes.
By a vote of 20 to 14, the state Senate on Friday sent Gov. Bob Wise his proposal to increase the state's cigarette tax from 17 cents to 55 cents per pack. The tax increase, which is the state's first since 1978, will take affect May 1.
The Senate, which originally passed the measure last week, argued over Republican complaints to a House amendment to move the bill's effective date from July 1 to May 1.
The House of Delegates passed the measure 59-38 on Thursday.
Amy Shuler Goodwin, spokeswoman for Wise, said the governor sought the 38-cent increase to raise an annual $60 million for the state's Medicaid program.
"Working with the House and Senate, the governor was able to get this bill passed," Shuler Goodwin told United Press International in a telephone interview. "We are in a serious financial crisis. We needed to make this happen."
Shuler Goodwin told UPI that failure to pass the tax increase would have left a $225 million hole in next year's Medicaid budget and eliminated some 5,000 jobs.
The state would have also had to close several nursing homes, and increase the price of prescription drugs. "It certainly would have been difficult" if the measure had failed, she said.
Medicaid spends $1.5 billion each year in West Virginia and generates 32,681 jobs, according to a West Virginia University Department of Business and Economics study.
Once the bill is signed by Wise, D-W.Va., the state's cigarette tax revenue will nearly triple from more than $30 million a year to more than $90 million. Shuler Goodwin said the governor would sign the legislation in the near future.
"These funds along with some cost-cutting measures will keep the program solvent and keep jobs in a major sector of West Virginia's economy," said West Virginia Secretary of Health and Human Resources Paul Nusbaum.
Wise has acknowledged that even with an increase, the revenue generated will not cover the public health and economic costs created by smoke-related illnesses. It will, however, help solve the state's healthcare budget shortfall, the governor said.
Shuler Goodwin added that the governor had asked for a 10 percent cut in state agencies budgets across the board to help close the deficit.
The governor said the increase would also impact youth smoking in West Virginia.
Despite the measure's passage, some delegates described the extra 38 cents per pack as a "tax grab," while others said it would be a blow to people's pocketbooks.
"Smokers will feel the 55 cents," Delegate and smoker Reid Renner, D-Marion, told the Charleston Daily Mail. "It may not make me stop, but I'll feel the economic impact."
(Reported by Chris H. Sieroty in Washington)
