{"id":31020,"date":"2023-10-24T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-24T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/the-unlikely-affiliation-between-universal-pre-k-and-nicotine-taxes-is-a-story-of-politics-and-tobacco-money\/"},"modified":"2023-10-24T16:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-10-24T16:00:00","slug":"the-unlikely-affiliation-between-universal-pre-k-and-nicotine-taxes-is-a-story-of-politics-and","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/the-unlikely-affiliation-between-universal-pre-k-and-nicotine-taxes-is-a-story-of-politics-and\/","title":{"rendered":"The unlikely affiliation between universal pre-K and nicotine taxes is a story of politics and tobacco money"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Father
Father John Opp and daughter Giuliana at the Isabella Bird Community School in Denver. He said he's grateful for the universal pre-K program and the support it provides his daughter. (John Daley\/CPR News)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

She\u2019s been diagnosed with autism, something Opp calls medical mystery.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery genetic test has come back normal, but she doesn\u2019t walk and is still nonverbal,\u201d he said, adding that Giuliana is incredibly social, with a love of sign language and horse therapy.<\/p>\n

Opp\u2019s family relies on Colorado\u2019s new universal pre-K program to help cover her tuition at Isabella Bird, where she gets great support from teachers and therapists.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of scary to think how much further behind she would be if she didn\u2019t have this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said the program helped him afford preschool, likely saving his family thousands of dollars.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got a full enough plate as it is,\u201d Opp said. \u201cI\u2019d rather not spend time worrying about figuring out what the cost would be. I\u2019m just grateful that we\u2019ve got some public funding and the more we can get, the better for her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colorado voters in 2020 approved raising hundreds of millions of dollars to establish the program, which currently enrolls more than 40,000 kids. And the money comes from a perhaps surprising and seemingly unrelated source \u2013 taxes on cigarettes, vapes and other tobacco and nicotine products.<\/p>\n

While the original proposal passed by a wide margin, voters are being asked to weigh in again this fall, this time on whether to allow the state to keep the full proceeds of the tax.<\/p>\n

Vaping sales, in particular, have been stronger than analysts originally anticipated, with the result that Colorado has brought in $23.65 million more than voters were originally told it would in the state\u2019s official voter guide. Rules in the state constitution say when that happens, it\u2019s up to voters to decide whether the state gets to keep the extra money or must refund it, in this case to tobacco wholesalers and distributors. That question appears on fall ballots as Proposition II.<\/p>\n

How a sin tax became linked to universal preschool<\/strong><\/p>\n

So something that\u2019s bad for people\u2019s health is now helping pay for something that\u2019s good for children\u2019s development.<\/p>\n

Critics of this funding model argue that if Colorado wants to prioritize early childhood education, it should find room for it in the general budget, instead of putting the cost on people addicted to tobacco and nicotine.<\/p>\n

Even some supporters of the original tax measure from 2020 are uncomfortable with what they see as a Faustian bargain.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that is the danger and the peril of entering this more transactional a la carte approach to funding government,\u201d Scott Wasserman, president of the Bell Policy Center, a progressive political think tank in Denver.<\/p>\n

Bell Policy backed the original measure and is in favor of Prop. II this year. Wasserman blames the Taxpayer\u2019s Bill of Rights, which says voters must approve all new taxes \u2013 something that so far, they\u2019ve only been willing to do with so-called sin taxes.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to come up with enticing hooks, industries that people think are fair to tax more or sins that are fair to tax more with very specific services that people care about,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is very important to come up with an attractive hook.\u201d<\/p>\n

Policymakers have increasingly, and perhaps grudgingly, leaned on those attractive hooks to fund other programs. Marijuana taxes support school construction. Gaming revenues go to the community college system.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really resent the connection to this form of revenue source, to be honest. I don\u2019t like it, but it is what it is,\u201d said state budget committee chair state Sen. Rachel Zenzinger.<\/p>\n

The Arvada Democrat said she voted against using tobacco revenues to pay for universal pre-K the first time it was proposed in 2019 because \u201cI felt like it was a regressive tax and that there are some things that we should just try and fund out of the general fund.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, she came around and voted \u201creluctantly\u201d to put the idea on the ballot in 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do operate under a constrained budget, and we needed a dedicated, new revenue source in order to accomplish our goal of expanding early childhood education,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Have public health and early childhood education become competing priorities?<\/strong><\/p>\n

So what happens when a health-conscience idea comes runs into policymakers\u2019 other priorities? Colorado watched the answer play out last year, when state lawmakers considered a contentious, heavily lobbied bill to ban flavored tobacco, with the goal of cutting down on youth vaping.<\/p>\n

At the time, Gov. Jared Polis told Colorado Matters host Ryan Warner he opposed the statewide ban, saying it should be up to local officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhilosophically \u2026 I support local control on a wide variety of issues,\u201d the governor said.<\/p>\n

Polis insisted his opposition was not because reduced vaping sales could cut into the funding stream for universal preschool. And he noted tobacco and vape taxes also go to support anti-tobacco and addiction recovery programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it doesn\u2019t just go to early childhood (education). It goes to actually reducing tobacco usage,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

House lawmakers easily passed the flavor ban but the bill failed in committee before it could get to the full Senate. One of the decisive votes was cast by Arvada\u2019s Zenzinger.<\/p>\n

\u201cI voted against it and I killed it,\u201d she told CPR in an interview this month.<\/p>\n

Zenzinger, a teacher who is known as a relatively pro-business Democrat, said her vote was not about protecting dollars for universal preschool. \u201cThis was me recognizing that we were coming out of a pandemic and that my business community was suffering,\u201d she said. Owners of vape shops testified the bill would put them out of business.<\/p>\n

But opponents of the tobacco flavor ban saw the connection to education funding as a key element in their successful efforts to defeat the bill.<\/p>\n

The podcast \u201cShaping Vaping\u201d from the American Vapor Manufacturers devoted a show last spring to Why Colorado Backed Off a Flavor Ban. One guest: Joe Miklosi, a lobbyist for the vaping industry group Rocky Mountain Smoke Free Alliance, and former Democratic state representative.<\/p>\n

Miklosi told listeners that protecting the revenue stream for universal pre-K absolutely drove the outcome of the vote on the tobacco flavor ban.<\/p>\n

\u201cGov. Jared Polis, kind of a moderate Democrat governor of Colorado, really made it known he didn\u2019t like this bill, House Bill 1064,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Passing the statewide ban on flavored tobacco, Miklosi said, would cut into tax revenue \u201cfor one of his top three projects, pre-K child care,\u201d and he noted that Polis was promoting his creation of the popular program as part of his 2022 reelection campaign.<\/p>\n

He said the governor is not a huge fan of vaping, but he wanted the \u201csin tax revenue from what the voters voted on in 2020 and didn\u2019t want to see that gutted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nonpartisan state analysts estimated the flavor ban would have reduced the taxes going to pre-K and smoking cessation programs by nearly $20 million annually, about 10 percent of what the state collected under Prop EE in its first year.<\/p>\n

The back and forth over last year\u2019s flavor ban proposal shows how politics makes for strange bedfellows, said Miklosi.<\/p>\n

Contacted recently by CPR, Miklosi wouldn\u2019t provide details about his claim that the governor was protecting money for universal pre-K, but he noted that \u201cmany states, including Colorado, use sin taxes to fund programs that the public enjoys, like pre-K school funding.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked to respond to Miklosi\u2019s allegations, a spokesman reiterated that Gov. Polis was motivated by his support for local control.<\/p>\n

Still, the episode suggests the ways Big Tobacco \u2013 or maybe it\u2019s Big Vape these days \u2013 has become entwined with Colorado politics, as the state has come to rely on taxes paid by Coloradans who are themselves hooked on tobacco and nicotine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have to balance the budget, you\u2019ve got to make tough choices about where you\u2019re going to secure funding sources to support the programs that Coloradans demand,\u201d Miklosi told CPR.<\/p>\n

\u2018Moral ambiguity\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Back at the Isabella Bird School, parent John Opp played with his daughter Giuliana while contemplating the ties between her classroom and Colorado\u2019s smokers and vapers. He said there is some \u201cmoral ambiguity\u201d in taxing people\u2019s often unhealthy habits, \u201cbut if they\u2019re going to do it, can we make it a positive somehow?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, I think we\u2019re probably not getting rid of addiction and nicotine,\u201d he said. And if there\u2019s good that can come out of it, such as helping kids like his daughter and others gain access to greater services, he said he can support it.<\/p>\n

One backer of both the universal preschool program and last year\u2019s flavored tobacco ban said he didn\u2019t see conflict between the two.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there was a flavor ban tomorrow, I really don\u2019t think that it would be that huge of an impact on overall revenue,\u201d due to ongoing consumption of nicotine products and population growth, said Jake Williams, CEO of Healthier Colorado. \u201cI don\u2019t think that the universal pre-K program would honestly be all that affected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Revenue miscalculation puts tobacco taxes back on the ballot<\/strong><\/p>\n

When voters were first asked to raise tobacco taxes for universal preschool, the state estimated the proposal would bring in $186 million in its first full year. Instead the new taxes raised more than $20 million above the projection.<\/p>\n

Why was the original estimate off by so much?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a brand new thing,\u201d said Zenzinger, the state budget committee chair, especially since Colorado had never actually taxed vape products before. \u201cIt\u2019s just an estimate, and you use trends and you use sort of the context of what\u2019s happening in that moment in time to try and project.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another possible reason: Coloradans are vaping more than the state anticipated.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe observed wide fluctuations in consumption of marijuana during and following the pandemic (large increase during the pandemic; large decrease afterward), and nicotine may have followed a similar pattern,\u201d said Gregory Sobetski, the Legislative Council Staff\u2019s chief economist, in an email.<\/p>\n

While there is no organized opposition to the idea of Colorado holding on to the extra tax revenue, Republican lawmakers did uniformly vote against putting it on the state ballot. Rep. Anthony Hartsook argued that when the state tells voters a tax will raise a certain amount, it should stick to that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t like that sleight of hand,\u201d said Hartsook during a floor debate on the proposal. \u201cI don\u2019t mind if we tell the voters, \u2018Hey, we\u2019re going to tax you, are you OK with this?\u2019 and they say \u2018yes or no.\u2019 If we say, \u2018we\u2019re doing something for schools, yes or no?\u2019 But when we overcollect, what\u2019s to stop us in the future from doing business the same way?\u201d<\/p>\n

However, proponents argue the fledgling universal pre-K program needs the funds and are optimistic voters will again strongly support it, as they did in 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all as a community have to stand in the gap for providing high quality preschool and child care to our young children,\u201d said Heidi Heissenbuttel, the CEO at Sewell Child Development Center in Denver. \u201cThere was a crisis before the pandemic, it\u2019s even more of a crisis now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Opp and daughter Giuliana at the Isabella Bird Community School in Denver. He said he’s grateful for the universal pre-K program and the support it provides his daughter. (John Daley\/CPR News) She\u2019s been diagnosed with autism, something Opp calls medical mystery. \u201cEvery genetic test has come back normal, but she doesn\u2019t walk and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31021,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[120,155,28,265,3495],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-31020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado","tag-education","tag-headlines","tag-politics","tag-tobacco"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31020"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31020\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31020"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=31020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}