.Fun With Misleading Mailers: The Tax on Cigarettes

Deconstructing the political recyclables in your mailbox.

Mailer’s stance: No on Prop. 86
Opposees cigarette tax to fund tobacco prevention.

Key Funders
RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company, Cigar Association of America

Claim
Under Prop. 86, “schools lose out on more than $800 million a year that could be used in the classroom.”

Verdict
Horseshit. The consultants who conceived this and similar mailers must think we’re idiots, and they may well be right. All the same, Prop. 86 doesn’t affect school funding, period. The cigarette tax would be exempt from a constitutional requirement that sets aside a percentage of new tax receipts for schools. But its opponents are trying to leverage this fact to make you think your yes vote would rob the schools of income. Sleazy, sleazy, sleazy.

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