Iowa Action Center

This is huge news and something to be proud of. It is the best evidence yet that our strategy of making smoking more expensive (the dollar increase in the cigarette tax passed in 2007) and difficult (the statewide smoke free law passed last year) while helping smokers to quit, is effective. Now we MUST continue public support for effective smoking cessation services.

One thing that will make this more difficult is that the Tobacco Trust Fund has been depleted. Proceeds from the fund, budgetestablished from the master settlement with tobacco companies, provided about $7 million for tobacco control programs this year. Additional funding for tobacco prevention and cessation services will have to come out of a general fund from now on, which will make it harder to come by. We will continue to educate legislators about this and ask for their support.

The Society has met with most of the key legislative leaders and have received assurances that they support the smoke free law and feel it’s best to not take it up this session. We feel there is a significant risk that the law could be weakened if it is brought up. Instead we should concentrate on making sure businesses are complying and continuing to educate about the law and its benefits.

We believe there is considerable support for maintaining funding for smoking cessation services, but know that there will probably be efforts to cut or even eliminate funding for JEL (Just Eliminate Lies), paid advertising and other non-cessation tobacco control programming given the state’s bleak budget outlook. We will, of course, advocate for continued funding for those efforts as part of the overall efforts to reduce smoking.

One of our top priorities is to maintain funding for the Tobacco Control, Use and Prevention Program. This challenge should not be underestimated; there are vocal and determined opponents to the law and the current budget situation is dismal. However, we feel confident we can be successful with help from our legislators and strong grassroots support for these measures.

 A huge factor in this issue is the recent announcement that Iowa’s adult smoking rate as declined by 22 percent from 2006 to 2008 – from 21 percent to 14 percent. Iowa is now essentially tied with California for the second lowest smoking rate in the nation, below Utah at 11 percent.