Oregon Senate Votes to Ban Smoking in Cars with Kids
February 21, 2013 -- Republican Rep. Jim Thompson of Dallas said that enacting a ban on smoking in cars with children isn’t about restricting personal choice. It’s about shielding those who don’t have a choice to be around secondhand smoke.
May 23, 2012 -- Smoking and tobacco use currently provides Oregon with approximately $260 million in tax revenue each year, not nearly enough to account for the $2.4 billion that tobacco products cost the state each year. Still, the tobacco tax is a revenue stream, one that is expected to provide the general fund with $132.3 million for the 2011-13 budget. While that is only slightly less than 1 percent of the general fund budget, it would be a lot of money to scramble for if that revenue source ran dry.