Indicator Description
The amount of combined local, state, and federal taxes is one indicator of the regulation of cigarettes and alcoholic beverages. Research has shown that higher alcohol tobacco prices are related to lower use by adolescents. In some states, the proceeds from these taxes are dedicated to public health programs, including substance use treatment programs, prevention campaigns, and other public education efforts.

What to Measure

• Cigarettes: the amount of state and local excise tax on a pack of cigarettes.
• Alcohol: the amount of state and local excise tax on a specific type of beverage: beer, wine, or spirits.
• The effect of inflation on long-standing tax rates.
• Public use of alcohol taxes for treatment or other public health programs.

Where to Find Local Data

• Contact your state Alcoholic Beverage Control board for alcohol excise tax rates.
• Contact your local Department of Revenue for current and historical local cigarette excise tax rates.
• The Tax Foundation provides tax information on all 50 states. The state taxes and spending section is a resource for tax burdens, tax rates, and business tax climates on each of the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.
• Check with the Center for Science in the Public Interest Alcohol Policies Project for state changes in alcohol taxes.
• The Alcohol Policy Information System (APIS) provides information on alcohol-related policies in the United States at both state and national levels.

Interpretation Guidelines

• Communities and states that promote higher tax expenses successfully deter purchase of these products.
• When inflation rates increase and the tax on alcohol and tobacco products remain the same, the deterrence to purchase these products decreases because the price is effectively lower.
• Higher tax rates reflect a community's preference to use excise taxes on these products for financing public programs rather than financing them through income, property or sales taxes. It should not be interpreted, however, as the community's only commitment to prevention or deterrence efforts.

Center for Science in the Public Interest, Alcohol Policies Project. Beer Excise Taxes in Alabama: The Effects of Increases on Revenues, Price, and Consumption, March 2004.

Beer Taxes and Binge Drinking Rates

This example shows how two pieces of data (beer tax and binge drinking rates) can be combined to tell a powerful story.

Center for Science in the Public Interest, Alcohol Policies Project. Factbook on State Taxes, August 2004.