A study by the Truman School of Public Affairs at the University of Missouri discloses an urban-rural split in the narrow defeat of the tobacco tax increase proposal. Proposition A would have increased the tax on a pack of cigarettes by 55 cents. Only two rural counties voted in favor of the tax increase: Adair in northeast Missouri and Taney in extreme southern Missouri. Both the St. Louis and Kansas City areas favored the issue as did Springfield and Columbia. That support wasn’t enough to overcome strong rural opposition to the increase.
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