Source: Houston Chronicle, page 30A, early edition only
(http://www.chron.com/content/chronicle/metropolitan/97/09/13/statebriefs.20.html)
Contact: viewpoints@chron.com

Cigarettes and revenue

AUSTIN A state employee said Texas leaders in
1990 decided against discouraging smoking because they were
struggling with the budget and feared losing cigarette tax
revenue.

The Austin AmericanStatesman reported Friday that state
revenue estimator Tamara Plaut testified in an April 10
deposition that legislators opposed a move in Congress to
increase the federal excise tax on cigarettes.

"In terms of policy decisions about cigarette smoking going
down, they (legislators) didn't care at all," Plaut said in
the deposition taken as part of the state's $14 billion
lawsuit against the tobacco industry.

"All they cared about was getting enough money to fund the
school finance proposals they were considering at the time."

Plaut also testified, however, that the decision had less to
do with smoking than making the state budget work. The
deposition was given to the newspaper by an Austin attorney
for Phillip Morris Inc.