{"id":2448116,"date":"2019-08-28T21:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-29T03:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=312000"},"modified":"2019-08-28T21:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-08-29T03:00:00","slug":"pitkin-county-will-send-tobacco-tax-proposal-to-november-ballot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/pitkin-county-will-send-tobacco-tax-proposal-to-november-ballot\/","title":{"rendered":"Pitkin County will send tobacco tax proposal to November ballot"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Pitkin County aims to join Aspen and other local municipalities in taxing the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products.<\/p>\n

The county commissioners voted 5-0 Wednesday to place a tobacco tax question on the Nov. 5 ballot. The proposal is for a tax of $3.20 per pack of cigarettes with an increase of 10 cents annually until it reaches $4 per pack as well as 40% on all other tobacco and nicotine products.<\/p>\n

If approved, the tax would be implemented Jan. 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a strategy for reducing tobacco use,\u201d Pitkin County Public Health Director Karen Koenemann told the commissioners.<\/p>\n

Her memo to the commissioners said research has established that price increases have the largest impact on children and young adults starting and continuing tobacco use. For every 10% increase in price, there is a 7% decrease in youth use and a 4% overall decrease.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Steve Child said he was particularly concerned about kids using e-cigarettes, also known as vaping.<\/p>\n

The resolution passed by the county commissioners to send the question to the ballot said, \u201cColorado has the highest rate of youth use of e-cigarettes in the nation, and Pitkin County schools have some of the highest use rates in the state.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Kim Levin, an emergency room doctor at Aspen Valley Hospital and Pitkin County\u2019s medical officer, said 1 in 4 Aspen High School students acknowledged in a survey that they have tried vaping. She said taking action on a local level has proven effective in reducing rates of tobacco use.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of many tools to fight this epidemic and one of the most effective,\u201d she told the commissioners.<\/p>\n

Aspen, Snowmass and Basalt voters all previously approved a tobacco tax. Carbondale\u2019s elected officials also approved placing a tobacco tax on the ballot and Glenwood Springs officials are considering it, said Ann Mullins, an anti-tobacco activist and Aspen councilwomen. The Eagle County commissioners are also sending a measure to the ballot.<\/p>\n

The effort will be more effective with the counties taxing tobacco, Mullins said.<\/p>\n

If approved, Pitkin County\u2019s tax would raise an estimated $700,000 in 2020. The revenue will be used for public health programs with a focus on tobacco and substance-abuse prevention and mental health programs. Revenue also will be used to enforce and administer the program.<\/p>\n

scondon@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pitkin County aims to join Aspen and other local municipalities in taxing the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products. The county commissioners voted 5-0 Wednesday to place a tobacco tax question on the Nov. 5 ballot. The proposal is for a tax of $3.20 per pack of cigarettes with an increase of 10 cents […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2448116","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-25 20:58:23","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2448116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448116\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2448116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2448116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2448116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}