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Duncan Ties Health Plan to Higher Cigarette Tax
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· Invest $15 million in an experimental program to help small businesses purchase health insurance for employees.
· Increase support for drug treatment by $30 million.
Fawell said the governor is "flattered" that Duncan is proposing to increase funding for drug treatment by an amount that Ehrlich suggested in 2002. Since Ehrlich took office, funding has increased $25 million, Fawell said.
Campaigning on the Eastern Shore yesterday, O'Malley said that many of Duncan's proposals were good and that some mirrored ideas O'Malley has floated. O'Malley said his efforts had resulted in a significant boost in state and local money for drug treatment in Baltimore -- from $29 million in fiscal 2000 to $60 million in fiscal 2003 before dipping to $53 million in fiscal 2005.
"I would certainly like to see us do another $30 million a year," O'Malley said.
The stepped-up funding, O'Malley said, might help explain a decrease in property crime in Baltimore. Meanwhile, the city announced yesterday that Baltimore drug-intoxication deaths fell to a 10-year low last year.
O'Malley questioned whether a cigarette tax increase was the best way to pay for the health-care proposals. Maryland raised the tax to $1 in 2002 to help pay for a major education initiative. At $2, the state's tax on cigarettes would be the fourth-highest in the nation.
"The downside to that particular tax," he said, "is one would hope it would be a shrinking revenue source as more people stop smoking."
