Montgomery County endorsed a proposal on Tuesday that could eventually force smokers in Maryland to pay $1 more for a pack of cigarettes.
The County Council unanimously approved the Healthy Maryland Initiative, which calls for a doubling of the cigarette tax to $2 per pack to raise to help expand health care access for Maryland’s uninsured, help small business pay for employee health care coverage and fund comprehensive anti-smoking programs.
Montgomery is the first county in the state to pass the initiative, said Vincent DeMarco, president of the Maryland Citizens Health Initiative, which is behind the drive to provide health insurance to all state residents.
“This is a very important step for us and it’s very important that [Councilman] Tom Perez endorsed it,” DeMarco said.
Perez, a Democrat, is running for attorney general. His endorsement, along with that of the Council, is the first the initiative has received by a candidate for statewide office, DeMarco said.
The initiative, also known as House Bill 441, will be studied during the summer by a legislative task force that will make a recommendation about the bill by the end of the year.
Though Maryland ranks as the third-wealthiest state in the nation, more than 800,000 of its 5.3 million residents are without insurance. Another 800,000 are considered underinsured.
“The people of Maryland are going to be asking, ‘which side are you on?’ Are you on the side of the tobacco companies or Maryland’s children and the uninsured? The only group that will suffer from this law are tobacco companies,” DeMarco said.
