Andrew Crighton
Life Editor
The College, Not Cancer Act has been in the making since around July 2015, the end goal being the reduction of state university rates while simultaneously lowering smoking rates.
The act calls for a $1.50 increase on the excise tax of cigarettes, which is currently 57 cents per pack, the lowest in the west and seventh lowest in the nation.
The revenue would be used to lower state university tuition rates by as much as 22.7 percent.
Bill Moran, founder of stoptuitionhikes.com, completed his undergraduate work in 2009, and at that time worked two to three jobs to get through school. According to Moran, “That story was kind of an outlier back then.”
After seeing the type of workload and amount of debt students carry these days, he decided to at the very least create and extend the dialogue on this issue.
According to The Institute for College Access and Success, in 2014, the average amount of student debt for Idahoans was approximately $26,091.
Moran points out those numbers do not include PLUS loans, which are given through the U.S. Department of Education.
According to Moran, having a PLUS loan or a cosigner for a PLUS loan can increase your maximum to around $54,500.
One of the main causes for tuition increases is a decrease in funding from the state.
A quote taken from the 2015 Idaho Fiscal Facts sheet reads, “As a consequence…the percent of our General Fund going to Higher Education and other agencies has decreased to accommodate growth in Medicaid and Adult & Juvenile Corrections.”
Moran says that the increase in Medicaid costs can be chalked up to, in part, cigarette related illness, which has been estimated at costing Idaho $508 million per year by the American Lung Association.
The act projects this increase in tax will generate $69 million dollars in revenue, taking into account a decrease in the smoking rate of up to 20 percent.
With 80 percent of this revenue going to state universities, and the remaining 20 percent being divided equally among state community colleges and tobacco cessation programs, it is estimated that this could save students as much as $1,550 per year.
Moran put this information into a Free Application For Student Aid (FAFSA) loan debt calculator and found that with the average time it takes to graduate, 5.33 years, this would save students as much as $8,000 dollars.
This amount of savings on the principle of a loan could reduce the time it takes to pay off the loan by 8.33 years, and save the student a total of approximately $21,000 when interest is added into the calculation.
“This doesn’t solve the college affordability problem, but it makes it a whole lot better,” Moran said.
Currently, Moran is in the process of petitioning to get the act onto the 2016 ballot. This would require a total of 47,623 signatures by the April deadline.
The two largest hurdles are the approaching deadline and pushback from the governor’s office.
Currently, Governor Butch Otter is attempting to pass an alternative plan to expand Medicaid. This plan allocates $30 million to give health care coverage to Idahoans who cannot afford federal health care plans but do not qualify for Medicaid.
This plan also uses cigarette tax revenue, however, it does not increase taxes; it would change where the current tax revenue is appropriated to.
Moran explained that the biggest benefit to this campaign is that it is popular. Moran cited a poll done by KIVI-TV News showing that 65 percent of Republicans, 78 percent of Democrats and 60 percent of Independents in Idaho support The College, Not Cancer Act.
Idaho State University did not wish to comment on The College, Not Cancer Act.
“The position we have, is that we do encourage students to get involved. ASISU really has no stance on this, because we can’t really support something that not all students necessarily agree with,” said Kitanna Belnap, ASISU vice president.
