New Life For Cigarette Tax Hike?

Gov. Ted Kulongoski refuses to concede defeat in his campaign to increase Oregon's cigarette tax to raise money for health insurance for kids.

We admire the governor's obstinacy in this matter.

Or maybe we just feel a kinship with Kulongoski because Oregon voters thumbed their ballots at him as they did us.

Last fall we, along with the governor, recommended voters approve Measure 50.

That measure would have boosted the state cigarette tax by 84fi cents per pack, to a total of $2.02.

State officials estimated that the extra taxes would pay for health insurance for 100,000 children who aren't insured now.

Voters turned down Measure 50 by a decisive margin, 60 percent to 40 percent.

Kulongoski blamed the defeat on the $12 million cavalcade of TV ads that the tobacco industry bought.

"What happened was, the tobacco industry bought the election," Kulongoski told a reporter from The Associated Press on election night, Nov. 6.

The governor's frustration might have gotten the better of him during that interview.

In any case, we don't share Kulongoski's cynicism about what motivates Oregon voters.

Don't misunderstand: We acknowledge that the unprecedented glut of campaign cash influenced some voters, to some extent.

But those ubiquitous TV spots worked not because they misled voters, but because they emphasized the troubling aspects of Measure 50.

For instance, the measure would have added the cigarette tax to Oregon's Constitution.

The ads didn't, for obvious reasons, explain that Measure 50 was a Constitutional amendment because Republicans in the state House of Representatives marshaled enough votes to squash the two options Democrats preferred: Either pass the tax hike in the Legislature without referring it to voters; or ask voters to approve a measure that changes state law, but not the Constitution.

The TV commercials also noted that not all of the extra tax dollars would buy health insurance for Oregon children.

We think that fact, combined with the Constitutional matter, sowed the seeds of Measure 50's defeat. And those ideas were so simple that they would have influenced voters even if the No on 50 campaign had been a fraction of what it actually was.

Kulongoski's new strategy for the 2009 Legislative session is to propose a smaller tax increase, and to explicitly show that all the money will go to kids' health care.

If the governor does as he says he will do, then he has a good chance to succeed — either by garnering enough votes in the Legislature to increase the cigarette tax there, or to refer to voters a measure that doesn't change the state Constitution.

And we still believe, as we believed last autumn, that a majority of Oregon voters will endorse a measure that uses cigarette taxes to help children who most need it.