KTKA

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, which makes one out of every three cigarettes sold in the United States, is working to snuff out a proposed 50-cent per pack tax increase in Kansas.

The nation's second-largest tobacco company sent an email to smokers, encouraging them to attend an anti-tax rally at the Statehouse next month, in protest of the proposed cigarette tax increase, a part of the health-care reform proposed by the Kansas Health Police Authority and supported by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.

"It seems they still want more of your hard-earned money. It's time to tell Governor Sebelius and other politicians that enough is enough!" the email says.

Some Kansas smokers are opposed to the increase.

"I think it's a heavy-handed way to raise money," said Chris Tantillo, Topeka. "It's an unfair way to raise money."

"We've been taxed enough," said Jim Banks, Osage City. "Tax something else for a change."

Right now, smokers in Kansas are taxed 79 cents for every pack of cigarettes. With the tax increase, they'd pay $1.29 per pack in tax.

Estimates show the 50-cent per pack tax hike and increases in taxes on other tobacco products in Kansas would raise $61.5 million in fiscal year 2009. As the bill is written now, the cigarette tax hike wouldn't stop at 50 cents. It would increase by an additional four cents each year.

According to Americans for Prosperity, a national organization that works to limit government, smokers in the states that border Kansas pay the following taxes on every pack of cigarettes:

- Missouri 17 cents

- Oklahoma 60.75 cents

- Nebraska 64 cents

- Colorado 84 cents

With nearly 42 percent of Kansans living in border counties, Americans for Prosperity estimates cigarette sales in Kansas would go down nearly 20 percent.

The Kansas Health Policy Authority said the tax increase is primarily intended to discourage smoking. Some smokers say it would work.

"I think it's a hell of an incentive to quit, because I already spend a lot of money on cigarettes," said Michal Enloe, Topeka.

The tax increase doesn't seem to be getting very far. Hearings were held in the house taxation committee earlier this month, but the bill isn't scheduled to be worked anytime soon, according to the committee's secretary. The senate assessment and taxation committee hasn't even touched the bill.

Another portion of the healthcare reform may also be in limbo. Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee delayed its scheduled vote on a smoking ban, which would ban smoking in many public areas, subject to a Nov. 4 vote in each county. Committee members will vote on the measure Wednesday, said committee chairman John Vratil, R-Overland Park. If passed, it would go to the full House. The measure's future was cast into doubt last week when the committee exempted bars and casinos from the bill.