Yesterday, PA Governor Tom Wolf proposed many significant tax changes, including increasing the cigarette tax $1/pack (from $1.60 to $2.60) and imposing a similar 40% wholesale tax on e-cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, cigarillos and large cigars, and smoking tobacco.
http://www.portal.state.pa.us/porta...urrent_and_proposed_commonwealth_budgets/4566
PA vVaping and vapor product advocates need to contact (visit, write, call) their State Rep and Senator
PA General Assembly
to express opposition to taxation of vapor products.
The PA Constitution requires the General Assembly to approve a budget by the end of June, so we must mount a four month campaign to ensure that vapor products are not included in the final budget. While the House and Senate leadership and the Finance and Appropriations Committees in both the PA House and Senate have typically overseen most budget processes in Harrisburg, other committees are likely to be active this year (due to so many different tax proposals).
Please note that PA is the only state that does not tax smokeless or smoking tobacco, and is one of only two states (FL) that doesn't tax cigarillos and large cigars pipe tobacco. Also note that efforts to tax OTP by PA Gov. Rendell and PA Democrat legislators during the past decade were unsuccessful (as they were blocked by Republican House and Senate leaders, who now have even larger majorities in both legislative bodies).
Yesterday afternoon, AVA president Greg Conley sent out the press release (below) to PA news media, and Smokefree Pennsylvania sent a press release with my same comments to our PA news contacts.
This morning, Kevin Gavin from WESA (the PBS affiliate in Pittsburgh, which is primarily listened to by liberal Democrats) interviewed me for 5 minutes on Gov. Wolf's tobacco and vapor product tax proposal.
90.5 WESA | Pittsburgh
Bill Godshall
Executive Director
Smokefree Pennsylvania
1926 Monongahela Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15218
412-351-5880
BillGodshall@verizon.net
Contacts: Gregory Conley (AVA) / Bill Godshall (Smokefree Pennsylvania)
Tel: 609-947-8059 / 412-351-5880
Email:
gconley@vaping.info /
billgodshall@verizon.net
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
3/3/2015 at 4:30 pm EST
Pennsylvania Legislature Should Reject Gov. Wolf's E-Cig Tax
Anti-smoking and small business advocates warn that the new tax will do more harm than good
HARRISBURG, P.A. - Today, the American Vaping Association, a leading advocate for the benefits of vapor products such as electronic cigarettes, joined with longtime Pennsylvania anti-smoking advocate Bill Godshall to react to Governor Tom Wolf's proposal to tax vapor products at 40% of wholesale price. Gov. Wolf's budget would also increase Pennsylvania's cigarette tax by $1 per pack and tax other tobacco products (OTP) like smokeless tobacco and cigars at the same rate as vapor products.
Gregory Conley, President of the American Vaping Association, issued the following statement:
"In a state with over 2 million smokers, it is unconscionable to target these smoke-free products with new taxes. Vapor products have been repeatedly proven to help smokers kick the habit. Discouraging adult smokers from switching to vaping will only result in more disease and death.
"Pennsylvania's 120+ vapor retail specialty stores will also suffer under this bill. Many consumers will avoid the tax by shopping over state lines or through the Internet.
"For the good of public health and small businesses in Pennsylvania, the Legislature should reject Gov. Wolf's tax hike on vapor products."
Bill Godshall, longtime anti-smoking activist and the Executive Director of Smokefree Pennsylvania, issued the following statement:
"Cigarettes cause 99% of tobacco attributable disease, disability, healthcare costs and death. In sharp contrast, e-cigs and smokeless tobacco have helped several million smokers quit, pose negligible risks, and save the Commonwealth money."
"The PA General Assembly should increase the cigarette tax, but should reject taxing low risk OTP and lifesaving vapor products. Besides, raising the cigarette tax by $1 per pack will generate five times more tax revenue than Governor Wolf's counterproductive OTP and vapor product tax proposal."
For more information on e-cigarettes and their efficacy for helping smokers quit, please see these studies. (1, 2, 3, 4).
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You can learn more about AVA and vaping by visiting the AVA website. You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter.
About the American Vaping Association:
The American Vaping Association is a nonprofit organization that advocates for small- and medium-sized businesses in the rapidly growing vaping and electronic cigarette industry. We are dedicated to educating the public and government officials about financial and public health benefits offered by vapor products, which are battery-powered devices that heat a liquid nicotine or nicotine-free solution and create an inhalable vapor.
About Smokefree Pennsylvania:
Since 1990, Smokefree Pennsylvania has advocated local, state and federal policies to ban smoking in workplaces, stop cigarette marketing to youth, increase cigarette tax rates, hold cigarette companies accountable in civil court, and help smokers quit. During the past decade, Smokefree Pennsylvania has been educating the public that cigarettes are 100 times more hazardous than all smokefree tobacco/nicotine alternatives, including smokeless tobacco, nicotine gums, lozenges, patches, inhalers, and e-cigarettes.
