Proposition 86 & Election results & Post-election 21 Nov 2006 02:34 pm
Tobacco tax fails in California
There were tobacco taxes similar to Proposition 86 on the ballot in Missouri, Arizona, and South Dakota this year. The latter two measures passed. Missouri’s tobacco tax measure failed.
Although industry analysts warned before the election that tobacco manufacturers faced an uphill struggle to defeat Proposition 86 because of most Californians’ antipathy toward smokers and toward tobacco generally, in the end, only a scattered number of counties voted for the measure.
Secretary of State voting pattern maps show that the heaviest support for the measure was in the Bay Area, with other counties that supported the measure doing so by only small majorities. San Francisco registered the highest support for the measure (67%); Glenn County voted most strongly against the measure (75%).
Overall, though, the margin by which Proposition 86 failed statewide was narrow enough that many political analysts believe that the tobacco tax will be back on a future ballot in one form or another.