ICYMI: Massive Tobacco, Vaping Tax Snubbed Out!

A bill imposing a massive tax hike on tobacco and vaping products was quickly killed on Thursday, just one day before the end of the Colorado State session. As Mike Krause at Complete Colorado notes:

House Bill 1333 would have asked voters to raise taxes on a pack of cigarettes to $2.59 from the current 84 cents, as well as establish a 64 percent tax on  the wholesale price of vaping products.  Colorado voters thoroughly rejected a similar tax increase on tobacco products in 2016.

Polis’ support for a large-scale tax on vaping products, which would fall disproportionately on low-income users, came as a surprise to some given his apparent previous support for such products as safer alternatives that help people quit smoking tobacco.  In 2018, Polis retweeted a study from the Cato Institute on overreaching Food and Drug Administration regulations on vaping products, writing:  “The @US_FDA should get out of the way of technologies that improve health, help ppl quit.”

Looks like low-income users will still have access to safer alternatives to cigarettes at a price they can afford.