Welcome
"As your State Representative, I pledge to serve to my best abilities the citizens of the area, by encouraging what makes this district great. This region of the state has been ignored for a long time - Funding Schools, Indiana's strong reliance on Property Taxes, Personal Rights and Safety as well as Economic Development are some of the few points that need to be addressed. It is time to stand up and make our voice heard."
~Tom Knollman
Updates
Smoke and Mirrors
Toward a Smoke-Free Indiana
This past week, the Indiana General Assembly wrapped up the first half of the 2007 legislative session. On Tuesday, the House of Representatives considered a proposal to raise the cigarette tax in order to provide healthcare for underprivileged Hoosiers. The bill failed by a 44-52 vote, and I stood with the majority of representatives in voting against this tax increase.
I understand that tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death in Indiana and it is indeed regrettable that many Hoosiers choose to use these products. Cigarettes in particular are known to increase a person’s chances of cancer, emphysema, heart disease, and can cause birth defects in unborn children. Because of these facts, I recently voted for an amendment that would have made Indiana a smoke-free state. Yet I oppose funding new government programs by using tobacco as the tax mean. In a speech given shortly before the beginning of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln famously declared that “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Our state government can learn a lesson from this. By preaching cessation on one hand while relying on increased revenue from sales on the other, Indiana would be divided against itself and would have a tougher time dealing with tobacco in general. If the tax hike leads many Hoosiers to quit smoking, how then are we going to pay the total cost of the program? The costs of these programs always grow, so will we actually need more people to light up down the road?
Instead of raising smokers’ taxes so that we can spend more money on healthcare, the focus of any new tobacco policy should be to help smokers quit in order to prevent much of the need for additional healthcare. The more Hoosiers that wrestle their lives from the clutches of addiction, the less strain we will have on our healthcare system. Fortunately, there is support for those who have made the decision to stop smoking.
Smokefree Indiana recently announced the Indiana Tobacco Quitline, a new statewide telephone-based service to help tobacco users quit. Any Hoosier can access this resource by calling (toll-free) 1-800-QUIT-NOW. The Quitline provides support for individuals who want to stop using tobacco, offers information on tobacco dependence, and provides information on community or national cessation resources. A live “quit coach” is available to callers from 8 a.m. to midnight, seven days a week. During non-operation hours, callers can leave a voice message or listen to a bank of recorded informational messages tailored to suit their needs. Quitline services will be available in both English and Spanish, and Interpretive Services will be utilized for other languages. Additional local resources, information, and downloadable handouts about the Quitline can be found at www.smokefreeindiana.org. The Indiana Tobacco Quitline is made possible through a supplemental grant to Smokefree Indiana from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
My decision to vote against increasing the cigarette tax came after much deliberation of the measure and careful consideration of what I believe to be the best interests of the state of Indiana. I respect the Governor’s vision and I hope we can work together to find alternative ways of providing healthcare coverage to the needy. I just can’t support a proposal that depends on cigarette sales to accomplish this.
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