Why aren’t Missouri and Kansas spending tobacco settlement money on helping smokers kick the habit?

Missouri’s sad history of ignoring the dangers of tobacco use was reinforced this week when a coalition of health groups released a new study of state spending on the problem.

Missouri will spend $48,500 on smoking cessation efforts this fiscal year, the report says. That’s 49th out of 50 states and the District of Columbia.

It’s appalling. The Centers for Disease Control thinks Missouri should spend nearly $73 million this year to help its residents kick a nasty, dangerous habit.

Minnesota, with fewer people than Missouri, will spend $20.6 million on smoking cessation efforts this year.

Missouri’s reluctance to spend any money to help people stop smoking is fiscally irresponsible. Missourians spend more than $3 billion annually on health care costs related to smoking.

Reducing tobacco use would save taxpayer money, cut health insurance costs, and improve efficiencies in health care. And reducing smoking could save lives. Eleven thousand Missourians will die this year from smoking-related diseases.

Twenty-two percent of adult Missourians smoke; the national average is 15 percent.

Missouri has enough money to launch a better smoking cessation campaign. It received more than $191 million in fiscal year 2017 from the lawsuit settlement agreement with tobacco companies. Missouri has received $2.9 billion in tobacco settlement proceeds since 1998.

The state has more smokers than other states because it encourages the habit. The state’s tobacco tax — just 17 cents per pack — is the lowest in the nation.

Gov. Eric Greitens, who has made a healthy lifestyle something of a public obsession this year, should lead the effort to find more money to help smokers quit.

He also should ask for a public vote on a higher tobacco tax and then pledge at least $20 million from that tax to smoking counseling and treatment.

Kansas isn’t off the hook, either. This week’s study says the state ranks 39th in smoking cessation spending, with just $800,000 allocated. Kansas should be spending $28 million on tobacco treatment, the study found.

Kansas also has the money. It gets about $62 million from the tobacco settlement each year .

To his partial credit, Gov. Sam Brownback has proposed cigarette tax increases in recent years. Brownback wanted to use the money to shore up the state’s budget, but we support any tax that makes it more expensive to smoke.

Today, the Kansas tobacco tax of $1.29 a pack is 32nd in the nation.

Kansans should oppose borrowing future tobacco settlement money for general purposes. The state must use more of those funds to help smokers quit. Both Missouri and Kansas should redouble efforts to make smoking rare.

This story was originally published December 17, 2017 at 3:30 PM with the headline "Why aren’t Missouri and Kansas spending tobacco settlement money on helping smokers kick the habit?."