October 25, 2018

Cigarette Companies Are Fighting Medicaid Expansion in Montana

Ringo Chiu/ZUMAPRESS

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Patrick Caldwell reports that tobacco companies are spending a huge amount of money on a campaign to prevent a cigarette tax increase that’s aimed at funding Medicaid expansion in Montana:

A new set of filings in the state’s campaign finance database show that tobacco companies Altria (the parent company of Phillip Morris in the US) has now contributed more than $17.1 million to Montanans Against Tax Hikes, the group opposed to ballot question I-185. The measure would raise taxes on cigarettes in order to fund the continued operation of the state’s Medicaid expansion program. RAI Services (the parent company of RJ Reynolds) has also contributed $295,000 to campaign.

Wait. Philip Morris has contributed $17.1 million while RJ Reynolds has contributed $295,000? That hardly seems fair, does it? I wonder how the tobacco industry divvies up the work of undermining public health throughout the country?

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We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

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Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

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