{"id":61963,"date":"2025-12-16T20:14:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T20:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.firstthingsfirst.org\/?post_type=press-releases&#038;p=61963"},"modified":"2026-02-19T16:42:02","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T16:42:02","slug":"arizonas-cigarette-tax-revenue-declines-impacting-child-care-funding","status":"publish","type":"press-releases","link":"https:\/\/www.firstthingsfirst.org\/es\/press-releases\/arizonas-cigarette-tax-revenue-declines-impacting-child-care-funding\/","title":{"rendered":"Arizona Capitol Times &#8211; Arizona\u2019s cigarette tax revenue declines, impacting child care funding"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1><span style=\"color: #0072bc;\"><strong>AZ Capitol Times<\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n<p><b>Howie Fischer<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Arizona\u2019s cigarette tax revenue that once brought in about $165 million annually for early childhood programs has fallen to less than $90 million as smoking declines, reducing funding for child care quality initiatives and family scholarships. Lawmakers and advocates are exploring expanding the tax to include vaping products to make up the shortfall, but face opposition.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/azcapitoltimes.com\/news\/2025\/12\/15\/arizonas-cigarette-tax-revenue-declines-impacting-child-care-funding\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">read more&gt;&gt;<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arizona\u2019s cigarette tax revenue that once brought in about $165 million annually for early childhood programs has fallen to less than $90 million as smoking declines, reducing funding for child care quality initiatives and family scholarships.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-61963","press-releases","type-press-releases","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.1 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Arizona Capitol Times - Arizona\u2019s cigarette tax revenue declines, impacting child care funding - First Things First<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.firstthingsfirst.org\/es\/press-releases\/arizonas-cigarette-tax-revenue-declines-impacting-child-care-funding\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"es_ES\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Arizona Capitol Times - Arizona\u2019s cigarette tax revenue declines, impacting child care funding\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Arizona\u2019s cigarette tax revenue that once brought in about $165 million annually for early childhood programs has fallen to less than $90 million as smoking declines, reducing funding for child care quality initiatives and family scholarships.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.firstthingsfirst.org\/es\/press-releases\/arizonas-cigarette-tax-revenue-declines-impacting-child-care-funding\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"First Things First\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AZFirstThingsFirst\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-19T16:42:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AZFTF\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Tiempo de lectura\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minuto\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.firstthingsfirst.org\/es\/press-releases\/arizonas-cigarette-tax-revenue-declines-impacting-child-care-funding\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.firstthingsfirst.org\/es\/press-releases\/arizonas-cigarette-tax-revenue-declines-impacting-child-care-funding\/\",\"name\":\"Arizona Capitol Times - Arizona\u2019s cigarette tax revenue declines, impacting child care funding - First Things First\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.firstthingsfirst.org\/es\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-16T20:14:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-19T16:42:02+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.firstthingsfirst.org\/es\/press-releases\/arizonas-cigarette-tax-revenue-declines-impacting-child-care-funding\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"es\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.firstthingsfirst.org\/es\/press-releases\/arizonas-cigarette-tax-revenue-declines-impacting-child-care-funding\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.firstthingsfirst.org\/es\/press-releases\/arizonas-cigarette-tax-revenue-declines-impacting-child-care-funding\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.firstthingsfirst.org\/es\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Press Releases\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.firstthingsfirst.org\/es\/press-releases\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Arizona Capitol Times &#8211; 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