Win or lose, tobacco companies are reaping hundreds of millions of dollars thanks to a California proposition that they spent a fraction of that amount to get on this fall’s ballot.
The measure, known as Proposition 31, asks voters if a 2020 legislative ban on flavored tobacco products, including electronic and menthol cigarettes, should be upheld.
But here’s the thing: The No on Prop. 31 campaign secured a nearly two-year pause on the ban when it collected 623,000 signatures to force the Legislature’s handiwork to a vote in the next general election. That delay cost Big Tobacco about $20 million, half paid to a signature-gathering firm.
