Photo by John Cochran.

Legislation introduced this week at the D.C. Council would increase the cigarette tax in D.C. from $2.50 to $4.50 a pack.

“I’m excited about the possibility of increasing the tax by a couple of dollars,” says Ward 7 Councilmember Vincent Gray, the chair of the Health Committee who introduced the bill. “It will make it more expensive for people to buy cigarettes and hopefully move in the direction of stopping smoking.”

D.C. has an adult smoking rate of 14.6 percent, though it’s higher for black Washingtonians, at 20.3 percent, and LGBT residents, at around 34 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

The Department of Health Smoking Cessation Fund Amendment Act of 2017 also proposes to put 10 percent of the money the city makes from cigarette taxes into the Smoking Cessation Fund, which tries to turn kids away from puffing on cancer sticks.

When compared to states, D.C. presently has the 11h highest cigarette excise tax rate, according to the Tax Foundation. If this bill passes, though, D.C. would move ahead of New York state to the number one slot, putting it closer in line with cities like Chicago and New York City, which heap $6.16 and $5.85, respectively, in combined state, county, and city taxes onto cigarette prices.

D.C. last raised its cigarette tax in 2009 by 50 cents to its current rate of $2.50 a pack. More recently, the District has included vape products as “other tobacco products,” making them subject to a 67 percent tax, much to the chagrin of D.C. e-cig business owners. This new legislation does not impact them, though.

Nearby Maryland is close to the District when it comes to taxing cigarettes, levying an additional $2 per pack. But Virginia has one of the lowest state cigarette taxes in the country, adding a mere 30 cents (many cities in Northern Virginia, and both Arlington and Fairfax counties, have additional local taxes for packs, however).

After D.C. increased its cigarette taxes in 2009, the six-month period that followed saw a decrease of $4.9 million in cigarette tax revenue when compared to the same time period in the previous year. That led then-D.C. Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi to wonder if the higher rate was leading smokers to buy their packs in Virginia and Maryland instead.

Groups like the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids dismiss concerns about cigarette tax avoidance as overhyped.

Gray says the best solution to cigarette tax avoidance would be “a national policy, though frankly, that’s not gonna happen anytime soon.” Right now, there’s a federal tax of about a dollar per pack. “Given the environment in which we have to operate, [the cigarette tax increase] is a step in the right direction,” he says.

The World Health Organization, among others, has published reports arguing that increasing taxes on smoking is one of the most effective ways to get people to quit.

The bill was co-introduced by Ward 2’s Jack Evans, Ward 3’s Mary Cheh, Ward 4’s Brandon Todd, and Ward 6’s Charles Allen during D.C. Calls It Quits Week, and referred to the Committee on Finance and Revenue.