Bloomberg Gives to Calif. Tobacco Tax Campaign

Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO — New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has given half a million dollars to a campaign supporting a California initiative that would raise the state’s cigarette tax to fund cancer research.

Bloomberg challenged supporters of Proposition 29 this week to match that amount, hoping to raise a total of $1 million to help pass the June ballot measure.

The measure championed by cycling legend and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong would add a $1 per pack cigarette tax.

Bloomberg says he put up the money to counter the nearly $40 million contributed by major tobacco companies, whose opposing campaign says the measure would create a bureaucracy that could send tax dollars out of state.

In his decade in office, Bloomberg has expanded his city’s no-smoking policies, banning cigarettes in workplaces, parks and beaches.

—Copyright 2012 Associated Press

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