SACRAMENTO, June 7 (UPI) -- The fate of a $1-per-pack tax on cigarettes to fund cancer research was clouded with some 1 million votes yet to be counted from California's Tuesday primary.
As of Wednesday, the measure trailed by at least 63,000 votes, although some officials said as many as 1 million ballots had yet to be tallied, The Los Angeles Times reported.
The possible defeat of Proposition 29 comes just months after opinion polls indicated broad support and coincided with an onslaught of opposition ads that were part of a $47 million opposition campaign underwritten by tobacco giants Philip Morris USA and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., the Times said.
One ad in which a California doctor warned that not 1 cent from the tax would go toward cancer research has tax supporters crying foul.
"They were desperately trying to make Prop. 29 about something other than cancer and tobacco," said Chris Lehman, campaign manager for Yes on 29. "With a lot of voters, they had success in doing that."
If Prop. 29 is defeated, Californians will have rejected every tax increase proposal since 2004, said Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.
"Californians are not anti-government," Coupal told the Times. "But they want value for their tax dollars, and they perceive correctly that they are not getting that in Sacramento."
The outcome, whatever it is, likely won't bode well for a vital part of California Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to extract the state from its financial morass -- a proposed November ballot measure that would raise the state sales tax and income levies on the wealthy.
Source: www.upi.com
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