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The proposal to expand high-quality early learning opportunities with a 94¢ increase in the federal cigarette tax would produce the following benefits in Indiana.
Projected Benefits in Indiana from Increased Federal Funding for Early Education
The proposed early learning initiative would benefit many Indiana children who currently lack the opportunity to participate in high-quality preschool. Currently, 10% of the state’s three-year-olds and 15% of the state’s four-year-olds are enrolled in publicly funded preschool (state preschool, preschool special education, or Head Start). The initiative would initially focus on children in low- and moderate-income families. In Indiana, 256,888 children under age six (50.7%) live in households with incomes below 200% of the federal poverty level. The proposed early learning initiative could result in the following additional federal funding for and increased participation in preschool and voluntary home visiting in Indiana in the first year alone:
Additional funds provided to the state for preschool: $62.40 million
Additional children from low- and moderate-income families able to participate in preschool: 7,623
Additional funds provided to the state for expanded voluntary home visiting program: $8.50 million
Number of low-income women who give birth each year; these women and their children may benefit from voluntary home visiting: 25,816
In subsequent years, the funding and the benefits will be even larger, because the national funding for the initiative is $75.00 billion over ten years for preschool, only $2.74 billion of which would be provided to states in the first year, and $15.00 billion over ten years for home visiting, only $433.40 million of which would be provided to states in the first year.
Projected Benefits in Indiana from a 94¢ Federal Cigarette Excise Tax Increase
Each year, smoking kills 9,700 Indiana residents and costs the state $2.08 billion in health care expenditures. In addition, 32,700 of Indiana youth try smoking for the first time each year. Increasing the federal excise tax on cigarettes would reduce the toll of tobacco in Indiana, including the following public health benefits:
Kids alive today prevented from becoming addicted adult smokers: 55,000
Current adult smokers who would quit in the first year: 46,300
Reduction in births affected by smoking over the next 10 years: 19,800
Residents saved from future premature smoking-caused death: 30,500
10-year health care cost savings from fewer smoking-caused lung cancer
cases, heart attacks & strokes, and smoking-affected pregnancies & births: $109.42 million
Long-term health care cost savings from adult and youth smoking declines: $1.95 billion
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