Backers of a proposed Colorado constitutional amendment to raise taxes on cigarettes and other tobacco products are beginning their efforts with $850,000 in the bank as they seek more funds while they promote the measure.

Taxes on a pack of cigarettes would triple in January, if Colorado voters approve the measure placed on the Nov. 8 general election ballot Monday by the secretary of state.

After the measure’s approval for the ballot was announced, Myung Kim, a spokesperson for the Campaign for a Healthy Colorado, submitted email answers to questions from The Colorado Statesman:

1) What happens next? How do you plan to promote the measure to voters?”We are focusing on raising money to support our campaign to reach voters across Colorado about the importance of passing the cigarette tax increase. We also are building a broad grassroots campaign, coordinating with the 75 plus organizations in Colorado that have already endorsed the cigarette tax measure. We will get our messages out through diverse channels and our partners will help amplify our reach.”2) How much money have you raised so far and how do you plan to spend it? What about future fund-raising?”We have raised $850,000 so far and are focusing on raising more. The money will be dedicated to our communication and paid media work.”3) I recall reading an article a month or so ago that noted the tax would not apply to e-cigarettes or vapor devices. If so, what do you think the chances would be that smokers would just change their habit to include those items and not quit smoking?”The cigarette tax increase will significantly increase funding for tobacco education, cessation and prevention programs – putting Colorado at the funding level recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These programs, which will receive an estimated $54 million a year – will help educate Coloradans about all tobacco products and help them to quit.”

Colorado Secretary of State Wayne Williams said a 5 percent random sample of the 161,412 submitted petition signatures for the measure projected the number of valid signatures to be 116,954. That was more than the 98,492 signatures of registered voters required to be placed on the ballot. Backers of the proposal submitted their petition signatures on Aug. 8.

Initiative 143 would amend Colorado’s constitution so taxes on a pack of cigarettes would increase from 84 cents per pack to $2.59 per pack in January. Taxes on some other tobacco products would increase by 22 percent of the manufacturers’ list price.

The measure is estimated to bring in $315 million in its first year, according to the Campaign for a Healthy Colorado. The group said the funds would be used for:

1) Meeting the recommended funding levels by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for tobacco education, prevention, and cessation programs for Colorado’s youth and adults;

2) Colorado-based medical research to prevent and improve treatments for cancer, heart, lung and Alzheimer’s diseases and other tobacco-related illnesses;

3) Medical and mental health care for more than 450,000 Colorado veterans;

4) Expanded access to youth mental health services;

5) Increased access to health care in rural and under served areas;

6) Providing training and repayment of student debt for medical professionals in rural and under-served areas; and

7) Supporting current tobacco tax-funded programs, compensating for expected reductions in tax revenue due to lower tobacco use in the future.

Opposing groups like the Independence Institute, a free-market or Libertarian-leaning Denver think tank, call tobacco taxes “feel good measures.”

“They force a very unpopular minority to fund new or existing programs that may have no connection to smoking,” said the group’s director of public affairs, Mike Krause.

Studies have also found higher tobacco tax results in more cigarette smuggling from low-tax states, Krause added, and the intent also leads to a steadily declining revenue source for the programs the tax funds.

“You have fewer smokers if the programs work, and they’re very appealing programs,” Krause said. “And it’s not their intent, but it really turns smoking into a kind of civic virtue. These great programs need you to keep smoking so they can continue.”

Krause also noted some of the programs set for funding if this initiative passes are not directly related to smoking, such as paying off student for doctors in rural areas and veteran’s mental and medical health care.

Krause added that groups like the Independence Institute worry that, if the measure passes, backers will go to the state legislature when revenue declines and ask lawmakers to use general fund monies to keep the programs operating.

Backers noted that currently, Colorado ranks 38th in the nation for the tax amount on tobacco. Colorado now charges 84 cents tax per pack of cigarettes. The last tobacco tax increase was passed in 2004 and added 64 cents to the tax.

Over 75 organizations, including the Children’s Hospital of Colorado, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, the American Heart Association, and the American Lung Association and the Colorado Hospital Association, support this year’s measure.

The tobacco-tax measure is the fifth citizens’ initiative to successfully make the ballot. Other citizen proposals approved for the Nov. 8 ballot are the ColoradoCare statewide health care program, increasing the state’s minimum wage, medical did in dying and increasing the requirements to place constitutional amendments on the ballot.

Four other measures with petitions turned in to the secretary of state are still under review: Primary elections (No. 98), Presidential primary election (No. 140), Local government authority to regulate oil-and-gas development (No. 75) and Mandatory setback for oil/gas development (No. 78). The office has until Sept. 7 to decide on the status of these petitions.

Also on the ballot are two measures referred by the Colorado General Assembly: Amendment T, regarding servitude; and Amendment U, regarding property taxes. In addition, the Denver Metro Scientific and Cultural Facilities Board put a sales-and-use tax measure on ballots in Adams, Arapahoe, Broomfield, Boulder, Denver, Douglas (except Castle Rock and Larkspur) and Jefferson counties.

Updated on 08/23/16 to add opposition comments from Mike Krause with the Independence Institute.