Montana Gov. Steve Bullock paid a visit Monday afternoon to Whitefish to join local health care providers and one educator in showing support for I-185, which looks to raise the state’s tobacco tax while expanding Medicaid.

Bullock said there isn’t unlimited money for supporters to counteract Big Tobacco’s campaign against I-185, so he urged folks to advocate in favor of it.

“Tobacco companies can’t reach across the fence and talk to their neighbors,” he said. “You can though.”

“Montana is a state where people talking to people still makes a difference,” he added.

Speakers at the event inside North Valley Hospital made their case to about 75 people gathered, many of whom are employees at North Valley or Kalispell Regional Healthcare, to ask them to vote in favor of Health Montana Initiative 185, the state ballot measure that would increase tobacco taxes by $2 per pack while expanding the state’s Medicaid. The state’s Medicaid expansion would end in 2019 if the initiative does not pass.

Proponents of the initiative say it will help reduce smoking in Montana and provide health care for people in need.

While, opponents say it is constitutionally flawed by creating a permanent appropriation and could create a program that the tax eventually wouldn’t raise enough funds to support.

The tax also would include e-cigarettes, and the vaping products, which contain nicotine though not tobacco.

Bullock said Big Tobacco has spent more than $12 million to try to “confuse” voters on I-185 and he wanted to clear up some of the misconceptions.

“They are spending to try to protect their profits,” he said. “It’s time to clear up some of the smoke they’re spreading.”

He said I-185 fully funds the expansion of Medicaid for 100,000 Montanans and there is no unfunded mandate associated with it. He added that it will fund essential services for veterans and seniors while preserving health care especially in rural areas. He said there will be $2 million of new money to go toward assisting veterans as a result.

“This money will help cover the state’s part of expanding Medicaid,” he said.

Dr. Jason Cohen, chief medical officer at North Valley, says vaping products in particular concern him with flavors marketed to attract teens to encourage them to begin smoking.

“One-quarter of all high school students in the valley use tobacco,” he said. “Flavors like bubble gum and tutti frutti are not designed for a 60-year-old, they are for a 16-year-old.”

Cohen noted that tobacco is the No. 1 cause of preventable deaths in the state and nation. He said Big Tobacco wants to “lock our kids into their addiction because it’s the key to their future market.”

“Taxing tobacco works,” he said. “Raising the price is the single most effective thing we can do to reduce smoking.”

Columbia Falls School Superintendent Steve Bradshaw said as an educator he has seen students become addicted to tobacco. He said 5.4 million students age 5 to 18 currently in public schools will eventually die as a result of illnesses related to tobacco use.

“Think about it being your grandkids, think about it being your sons and daughters, who could die because of tobacco,” he said. “That’s how we beat tobacco. That’s how we beat them is by thinking about all those we could lose or those who we have lost because of tobacco.”

Bradshaw said tobacco related health costs are partly to blame for high health care costs borne by the Columbia Falls School District for its employee insurance. He said his school district spends $3.1 million on health insurance for its employees and their families and $270,000 of that is because of tobacco costs.

“That extra money represents an extra nurse or extra teachers or whatever my students need,” he said.

Nurse Nancy Henriksson said as the daughter of a lifetime smoker and mother of two teenagers she supports I-185. She has also seen the effects of smoking on the patients she treats every day.

“To me, if we don’t stand up and help the next generation, we are doing nothing,” she said.

Tobacco use costs the state more than $440 million in health care costs annually, according to the hospital.

I-185 will also prevent nearly 100,000 Montanans from losing their current Medicaid coverage and provide funding for health services that benefit underserved populations across the state including Montana veterans, seniors and individuals with disabilities, supporters note.