Ballot initiative will call for 25 percent tuition reduction

A Boise-based group is planning to file a ballot initiative next week that calls for a 25 percent tuition reduction at all public universities.

The reduction would be phased in over a two-year period and would be funded by a $1.50 tax on cigarettes.

A representative for the group stopped in Pocatello Thursday. He said the cigarette tax would raise the roughly $62.5 million the tuition reduction would cost.

“Every pack of cigarettes ends up costing the state about $5 in health care funds. Well, the health care fund isn’t being defunded. Those funds are actually coming from our higher education fund, so those kids’ scholarships are getting wiped out to cover for everybody who’s smoking,” said Bill Moran, who’s filing the initiative.

Ballot initiatives are rarely successful in Idaho. In order to make it on the November ballot, the initiative will need 47,623 signatures.