With Election Day less than four weeks away, California retail members, their employees and customers are urged to vote “No” on Proposition 56. This ballot question titled Proposition 56 would increase the California cigarette tax rate by $2.00 per pack and increase the tax rate on other tobacco products proportionately in line with the higher cigarette tax.

The reasons to vote “No” on Proposition 56 include the following:

1. Proposition 56 would raise up to $1.4 billion in new tobacco tax revenue, a huge tax increase on a minority of the adult population that purchases tobacco products.
2. Proposition 56 allocates just 13% of the new tobacco tax revenue to help smokers quit or keep underage individuals from starting to use tobacco products.
3. Proposition 56 diverts up to $600 million per year from the state’s schools. California’s Constitution requires that schools receive at least 43% of any new tax increase revenue. However, Proposition 56 was written to undermine this constitutional funding guarantee, allowing hundreds of millions of dollars a year that would otherwise go to schools to instead be diverted to health insurance companies and other special interest groups.
4. Proposition 56 increases insurance company profits because they are not required to accept additional Medi-Cal patients and are allowed, along with health care providers, to keep 82% of the new tobacco tax revenue.
5. Proposition 56 has virtually no taxpayer accountability for how health insurance companies and other health care providers spend the new tobacco tax revenue, nor are health insurance companies subject to the new audits that Proposition 56 requires.

For more information on this ballot question, visit www.NoOnProposition56.com.