COLUMBUS, Ohio — Despite families of cancer victims pleading with Ohio lawmakers, the GOP isn't interested in raising the tax on cigarettes.
“We were making plans for what life looked like once both kids were off doing their own thing,” Vince Marchetta, from Akron, told me.
Marchetta was excited, envisioning his future as empty nesters with his wife, Betsy.
"Instead, I attended both my kids' college graduations without her," he said.
Betsy lost her 5-month battle against cervical cancer in 2019. The devastating loss was made even more difficult by the fact that she had just beaten cancer once before, with her full fight being just two years.
"They're gonna live their lives longer without their mother than they're gonna live with her," he said, noting that she died as their son was going into his senior year of high school. "It's just heartbreaking that they are going to have big life events that she will never be a part of."
The father, while grieving, changed his plans from traveling with his wife of 26 years to advocating to prevent more families from suffering the same tragedy.
"It put me in a position to be a voice for her and for all the other people that aren't able to speak up," he said, sharing that he is the Ohio lead ambassador for the American Cancer Society.
He spent a day at the Ohio Statehouse advocating for the lawmakers to approve Gov. Mike DeWine’s proposal to increase the tax on cigarettes by $1.50. It would also increase funding for tobacco use prevention. This money would then go towards a $1,000 child tax credit for parents with young children.
Teenagers like Marianna Packer also spoke out in favor of the tax hike.
"The tax increase would make it less likely for kids to buy it because it's so expensive and they don't have the means to buy it," she said.
But lawmakers like House Finance Chair Brian Stewart (R-Ashville) aren’t buying the proposal.
"Republicans don't like to raise taxes," Stewart said. "Cigarettes and tobacco products are already pretty darn expensive and pretty heavily taxed."
Cigarettes are already taxed at $1.60, which means it would increase to $3.10 per pack.
"At some point, I think you have to respect the freedoms of Ohioans to choose what they want to do for their own life," he added. "And to just continually raise taxes on people as a punitive measure — I just don't think it appeals to a lot of people."
Senate President Rob McColley (R-Napoleon) added that upping the tax may hurt the state’s budget in the long run.
"It's been a declining source of revenue for years, and I would suggest that if the cigarette tax were increased even more above what it is, it's probably going to be an even more rapidly declining source of revenue," he said.
Marchetta asked what is the price of saving a life.
"If what we do saves one person's life, we're advancing our cause," Marchetta said. "Obviously, we have so many more lives to save, but one by one, we want to make sure that we're saving people from cancer."
Lawmakers say they will continue to debate the proposal in the coming weeks.
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