Bid to raise California tobacco tax nears November ballot

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A well-financed campaign whose backers include billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer, medical groups and organized labor has collected enough signatures for a ballot measure to raise California's cigarette tax by $2 per pack, officials said.

If enough signatures are verified, the measure would appear on an increasingly crowded Nov. 8 ballot alongside proposals to repeal a ban on single-use plastic bags at grocery stores and require actors to use condoms in adult films.

The announcement comes less than a month after Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation to make California the second state in the nation, after Hawaii, to raise the legal age to buy tobacco from 18 to 21.