Organizers shutting down Stop Tuition Hikes initiative

Citing a lack of finances and Statehouse support, the Stop Tuition Hikes movement is coming to a halt.

The grassroots effort sought to reduce college tuition costs in Idaho by raising the state’s cigarette tax. The group launched a statewide petition drive in November seeking enough signatures to get the measure on the next general election ballot.

If successful, the intiative would have increased taxes on pack of cigarettes by about $1.25, reduced tuition costs at Idaho colleges and universities by 22 percent, created a $7 million revenue stream for the state’s community colleges and provided another $7 million to Idaho’s statewide smoking cessation programs.

Bill Moran, the group’s spokesman, wrote in a press release sent out Thursday that “barring a charitable spirit,” the Stop Tuition Hikes campaign will be terminated Sunday.

Moran pointed to Gov. Butch Otter’s $30 million Primary Care Access Program initiative as one of the central reasons for Stop Tuition Hikes’ inability to gain momentum. Otter’s proposal will provide some basic health care for the thousands of Idaho residents left without insurance coverage because their incomes are too high to qualify for the state’s Medicaid program while they don’t make enough money to be eligible for subsidized coverage through the state insurance exchange.

“This effort has in no small way been undermined by the governor’s office both directly and indirectly dating back to early October — one month into our committee’s existence,” wrote Moran. “At that time, the governor established a task force to determine the allocation of funds and resources for PCAP, a program that based on our projections and that of major health organizations, relies on approximately $10 million of the same revenue that our proposal has called for since the beginning of September.”

Moran also called out the American Cancer Society and the American Heart and Stroke Association for failing to lend support, but blames the governor’s proposal for this as well.

“And we haven’t said this prior because we were trying to balance out the politics, but PCAP is god-awful policy,” Moran wrote. “It gives people, on an opt-in basis (see extra bureaucracy) the privilege of going to a primary care doctor or dentist (see money give-away) to be diagnosed with a condition that there is no subsequent funding to treat. When people talk about nexus between cigarette tax revenues and smoking, that is what they are talking about — a nexus into a well-lobbied interest group, which these kids are not.”

To place the initiative before voters, the group needed to gather 47,623 signatures by May. As of Monday, Jan. 18, volunteers collected 5,000 signatures.

Maureen Dolan is city editor of the Coeur d’Alene Press. You can reach her at mdolan@cdapress.com or @maureendolancda.