Alaska vapers, your help is urgently needed!
Tomorrow night (Monday), the Juneau Borough Assembly will consider an ordinance that will add a 45% tobacco wholesale tax on the sale of all e-cigarette and vapor product devices (the ordinance would also increase Juneaus cigarette tax from $1 to $3 per pack).
Before Monday at 7 PM, the members of the Juneau Borough Assembly need to hear your stories of how vapor products have impacted smokers in Alaska. To explain your opposition to this harmful, counterproductive tax, please email the full Borough Assembly at BoroughAssembly@juneau.org. Please see talking points below.
We also need vapers to attend and speak at the public hearing on Monday night. It will be held at 7 PM Alaska time at the City Municipal Chambers (155 Municipal Way in Juneau).
Again, if you cannot attend, we urge you to send respectful emails to BoroughAssembly@juneau.org and make phone calls to the members of the Brough Council before the hearing.
SUGGESTED TALKING POINTS
1). Ostensibly, taxes on tobacco products are intended to discourage use. However, due to the fact that e-cigarettes are neither tobacco nor shown to be a threat to public health, discouraging use is counter to goals of reducing smoking rates.
2). Sin Taxes are regressive. The smoking population, those switching to vaping, is disproportionately made up of poor and low income people. Sin Taxes place unnecessary burdens on an already financially challenged group.
3). Imposing a tax on these products will drive consumers to shop in neighboring cities and/or states that do not have a similar tax. Concurrently, consumers will be encouraged to shop online for better deals sending even more money out of the community. Local businesses will not be able to compete, be forced to close their doors, and jobs will be lost.
4). Taxing e-cigarettes in a manner similar to how cigarettes are taxed sends a confusing and inaccurate message to would be adopters that these two very different products present similar risks. The result of this message is that more people, those that otherwise would have switched to a smoke free product, will be encouraged to continue smoking.
Tomorrow night (Monday), the Juneau Borough Assembly will consider an ordinance that will add a 45% tobacco wholesale tax on the sale of all e-cigarette and vapor product devices (the ordinance would also increase Juneaus cigarette tax from $1 to $3 per pack).
Before Monday at 7 PM, the members of the Juneau Borough Assembly need to hear your stories of how vapor products have impacted smokers in Alaska. To explain your opposition to this harmful, counterproductive tax, please email the full Borough Assembly at BoroughAssembly@juneau.org. Please see talking points below.
We also need vapers to attend and speak at the public hearing on Monday night. It will be held at 7 PM Alaska time at the City Municipal Chambers (155 Municipal Way in Juneau).
Again, if you cannot attend, we urge you to send respectful emails to BoroughAssembly@juneau.org and make phone calls to the members of the Brough Council before the hearing.
| Mayor Merrill Sanford | (907) 586-5240 |
| Assm. Maria Gladziszewski | (907) 586-3510 |
| Assm. Kate Troll | (907) 364-5253 |
| Assm. Mary Becker | (907) 586-1900 |
| Assm. Jesse Kiehl | (907) 465-6827 |
| Assm. Loren Jones | No phone number |
| Assm. Karen Crane | (907) 523-0325 |
| Assm. Debbie White | (907) 789-5533 |
| Assm. Jerry Nankervis | (907) 789-0175 |
SUGGESTED TALKING POINTS
1). Ostensibly, taxes on tobacco products are intended to discourage use. However, due to the fact that e-cigarettes are neither tobacco nor shown to be a threat to public health, discouraging use is counter to goals of reducing smoking rates.
2). Sin Taxes are regressive. The smoking population, those switching to vaping, is disproportionately made up of poor and low income people. Sin Taxes place unnecessary burdens on an already financially challenged group.
3). Imposing a tax on these products will drive consumers to shop in neighboring cities and/or states that do not have a similar tax. Concurrently, consumers will be encouraged to shop online for better deals sending even more money out of the community. Local businesses will not be able to compete, be forced to close their doors, and jobs will be lost.
4). Taxing e-cigarettes in a manner similar to how cigarettes are taxed sends a confusing and inaccurate message to would be adopters that these two very different products present similar risks. The result of this message is that more people, those that otherwise would have switched to a smoke free product, will be encouraged to continue smoking.
