Comments on: Who bankrolled campaigns for, against Prop. 29?

By: Mike Pingatore

Mike Pingatore — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 17:29:15 +0000

Is there any way that we as voters can find out how each of the Calif. State Assembly members voted on the HSR bill, specifically Joan Buchanan?

Thank you.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 07:04:56 +0000

I have cancer bu without oversight how will we make sure the $ gets to cancer research? Will it go to Caliornia cancer patients ? Don’t take $ out of our CA economy for any reason if it’s not going to directly benefit CA residents.

By: JohnW

JohnW — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 20:26:19 +0000

Yes, sorry about your friend. Lost both parents to cancer, including a chain-smoking mother plus a chain-smoking grandfather to emphysema. This may be one case where I’m happy Elwood canceled out my vote.

By: Josh Richman

Josh Richman — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 20:01:45 +0000

@6 – Sorry for your loss, Elwood. I suspect there’ll be a lot of people in a similar boat, whose instinct to oppose taxes and bureaucracy is overwhelmed by a burning desire to stick it to Big Tobacco.

By: Elwood

Elwood — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 19:52:05 +0000

I voted yes in spite of my anti-tax libertarian views.

Maybe it’s because my best friend recently died of smoking-related cancer.

Or maybe it’s because every time I saw that b*tch doctor in the lab coat I wanted to vomit.

By: JohnW

JohnW — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 19:41:44 +0000

I voted against this – CA starting up yet another program and raising a tax that won’t contribute a nickel to dealing with our fiscal situation.

Do I feel good about my vote? Hell no! I don’t have the source, but I heard that Big Tobacco stands to lose $1 billion in revenue if Prop. 29 passes, which explains how they could afford to spend more than $40 million opposing it this time and more than $60 million opposing a similar measure in 2006. $1 billion! That’s a bunch of smokes — or fewer smokes, which saves lives and health system costs.

As for the possibility of losing sales taxes due to smuggling or the Indian Casinos getting into the cigarette retail business, that seems unlikely. Even if the tax passes, the cigarette sales tax will still only be in the middle compared with other states.

Just think how much all the TV advertising is contributing to the CA economy every time we have one of these hot button measures.

By: Bruce R. Peterson Lafayette

Bruce R. Peterson Lafayette — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 16:05:42 +0000

Thanks Josh. Now tell me exactly where they will be spending this money? Will it go to big drug companies or into some lawyer’s pocket? People have called cigarettes “Cancer Sticks” since the 50′s. Then smoked them anyway.
This tax will make a pack of Cancer Sticks cost about $6.06 for a pack of 20. I expect to be stopped at the State Line and be checked for smuggled tobacco.

By: Josh Richman

Josh Richman — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 15:21:21 +0000

@2 – The American Cancer Society is headquartered in Atlanta, Ga.

By: Bruce R. Peterson Lafayette

Bruce R. Peterson Lafayette — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 14:06:34 +0000

Interesting stats. Georgia must be where the tax money is headed. Maybe. If the foolish tax & spend people really wanted the tax to pass, they would have said the money would be for California education only. Not wherever a new, probably corrupt, committee pleases.

By: BGR

BGR — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 05:22:44 +0000

Big Tobacco v Big Medicine and Pharma still doesn’t explain why a bankrupt state government should be involved in another bogus research scheme like stem cell research.