Tom Briant, the Executive Director of the National Association of Tobacco Outlets and the Minnesota Wholesale Marketers Association, recently wrote calling proposed tobacco tax increases “outrageous.”

Briant and his organizations’ opposition is not surprising but runs counter to what Minnesotans know when it comes to the impacts of tobacco on our collective fiscal and personal health.

David Arons of the American Cancer Society and I represent thousands of Minnesotans touched by cancer and heart disease — the state’s leading killers. Smoking continues to be their single largest cause.

Because Minnesotans are outraged that smoking continues to kill their family, friends, neighbors and coworkers while driving health care costs higher and higher, an overwhelming 72 percent of Minnesotans support increasing Minnesota’s tax on cigarettes.

Smoking itself costs the state’s private and public health systems $2 billion each year. If the state increases its cigarette tax $1, the approximately $6 price would still be significantly lower than the estimated $8.85 that same pack costs us all in excess health care costs.

What’s truly outrageous is 5,500 Minnesota families each year stand in hospital rooms praying for loved-ones dying from tobacco addiction and that small businesses can’t afford rising health care premiums driven higher by smoking-related costs.

Predictions that businesses will lose 30 percent of their sales or cut thousands of jobs runs counter to well-established science. These are “go-to” scare tactics for the tobacco industry whether they’re opposing smoke-free workplaces or decrying price increases that help smokers quit and preventing kids from starting.

Here are the facts. Every 10 percent increase in price brings a roughly 4 percent decrease in cigarette consumption. Increasing the price of a pack of cigarettes by $1 will help 19,000 price-sensitive smokers quit and prevent 44,000 kids from starting. Most important, it will save almost 20,000 lives and $960 million in long-term health care costs.

Most smokers want to quit and have tried but repeatedly failed. Fortunately, Minnesota’s abundance of free quitting resources can help smokers who want to quit, succeed.

Not all smokers will quit. With a $1 increase, those who choose to continue smoking will generate a conservatively estimated $90 million in new revenue. Our organizations are sponsoring the Act for a Healthy Future and propose dedicating the revenue from a cigarette tax increase to cancer and heart disease prevention and preserving health care eligibility for thousands of working Minnesotans.

Minnesota taxpayers and businesses have borne the burden of tobacco use and waited for health care reform for far too long. Our Act for a Healthy Future will address smoking in Minnesota, take on the state’s leading killers, help contain rising health care costs and preserve thousands of Minnesotan’s access to health care.

It would be truly outrageous if St. Paul policymakers missed the opportunity to act for a fiscally and personally healthier future for Minnesota.

Rachel Callanan

senior advocacy director

American Heart Association

Minneapolis