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# Proposition 29: Pros
- URL: https://ivn.us/proposition-29-pros/
- Published: 2012-05-04T22:25:43.000Z
- Updated: 2026-06-22T19:24:24.000Z
- Author: Kymberly Bays
- Tags: News

*Proponents/Funders of Proposition 29: American Cancer Society, the Lance Armstrong Foundation*

- According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, smoking costs Californian taxpayers $9 billion a year in health care costs and productivity.
- "By adding $1 tax per pack of cigarettes and equivalent tax on other tobacco products, Prop 29 will save an estimated 104,500 lives from premature smoking-caused deaths, prevent 228,700 children from becoming adult smokers and save Californian taxpayers an estimated $5.1 billion in long-term health costs from declines in smoking," says nurse [Hollye Harrington Jacobs in the Huffington Post](www.huffingtonpost.com/hollye-harrington-jacobs/prop-29%5Fb%5F1452884.html ).
- Proposition 29 will establish an annual audit of the new *California Cancer Research Life Sciences Innovation Trust Fund*, which behave similarly to a previous stem-cell research initiative approved by Californians years ago.
- California currently has one of the lowest cigarette taxes in the country. Presently, the state tax is 87 cents. New York state's cigarette tax is $4.35 per pack, in comparison.
- National average cigarette tax is $1.46, California's 87 cents per pack is well below this figure.
- Of the 3.6 million U.S. teenagers who smoke, more than 400,000 of them reside in California.
- Jenny Cook, past president of the American Cancer Society and co-chairwoman of the Smoke-Free Coalition of Marin County, [told Marinscope Newspapers](https://ivn.us/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/doc4fa1831232887418996269.txt): “The California Cancer Research Act will help save lives by providing nearly $600 million a year for cancer, heart disease, stroke, emphysema and other smoke-related research. CCRA will also drive down smoking rates by investing $179 million per year into proven tobacco control efforts such as prevention, cessation and enforcement by the initiative to raise the state’s tobacco tax by $1 per pack.”