Gov. Jim Doyle announced plans to combat the ""scourge of tobacco"" by increasing the Wisconsin cigarette tax by $1.25 and passing a statewide smoking ban Wednesday.
""Wisconsin taxpayers are forced to pay more than $500 million every year in Medicaid costs directly related to smoking,"" Doyle said at a conference.
Doyle said the tax would fight ""public health's number one enemy,"" by discouraging people from smoking, and raise over $250 million a year to offset Medicaid costs.
Maureen Busalacchi from Smoke Free Wisconsin said price-sensitive communities, like college students, children and pregnant women, would be most likely to quit smoking as a result of this tax.
The Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids estimates the tax will also cause 42,000 adults to quit smoking and 20 percent less children to start.
Critics like Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, say the cigarette tax unfairly supports government spending and violates Doyle's campaign promises not to raise taxes.
""The cigarette tax basically results in a far more disproportionate tax for lower-income Wisconsin consumers,"" said Mike Prentiss, spokesperson for Fitzgerald.
""If it's a priority for them, they should be able to find money in the existing budget to fund it without raising taxes,"" Prentiss said.
Josh Coleman, a Madison resident also disagreed with the tax, and said the cigarette tax would have to be even higher for it to convince him to quit.
""Smoking is a choice,"" Coleman said. ""People who choose [not] to smoke shouldn't be forcing their views on people who choose to smoke.""
While Carla Vigue, a spokesperson for Doyle, admits Doyle promised not to raise income, sales, corporate or other taxes during his campaign, she said his proposals do not violate this promise.
""It's a cigarette tax,"" Vigue said.
If passed by the state Legislature, Doyle's smoking ban, like a similar ban passed in Madison, would outlaw smoking in all public places, including bars.
Busalacchi said this legislation would reduce secondhand smoke, which she claimed as the number three cause of premature death in Wisconsin.
But Doyle's proposed ban is meeting resistance from Democrats and Republicans who think that bars should be exempt from such a ban.
""Whether people like it or not smoking is a legal activity, and tavern owners should be able to decide whether or not they want their patrons to engage in a legal activity,"" Prentiss said.
Doyle also announced that he will put $600 million from a settlement against tobacco companies in a permanent endowment fund. $30 million of the interest gained from this will be spent on anti-tobacco programming, tripling the state's current efforts.
