Chicago to TAX 95 Cents Per ML!

[nicnik]

Too many people think that government officials/politicians simply don't realize how effective vaping is for smoking cessation and major harm reduction, that it's all just a big misunderstanding. THEY KNOW.

I believe this, for the most part, to be true.

 

[Tommy-Chi]

So fill me in here.

The City of Chicago wants to put a 95 Cent/ml Tax on e-liquids that contain Nicotine. Right? But outside the City Limits, there would be No additional Tax. Right?

How, Exactly, has a Chicago Elected Official said that this will be Good for Chicago? When people will just take their Business outside the City Limits.

The Author and Bill's Supports names need to be Published in Every Vape shop in Illinois. And the Dates that they come up for Re-Election.

The sales will go to collar counties until the Democrats in charge of some of them ramp up the taxes there.

The City of Chicago (55+ yrs Democrat control), Cook County (25+ yrs Democrat control) where Chicago resides, and the State of Illinois (Legislature under Democrat control 25+ yrs) have been under the control of Democrats giving away everything for decades.

Chicago is looked after by prosecutor Anita Alvarez, and Att General Lisa Madigan who are both Democrats, and do NOTHING for the state except cover for Democrats & Unions. For ex: Lisa Madigan is the daughter of Mike Madigan who runs the state from the legislature...he is part of the Chicago Democratic Machine and put Barack Obama in the White House. Alvarez, didn't charge Mayor Daley's nephew with murder after he beat to death a man on Rush St. until at least 5yrs later.

 

[Tommy-Chi]

I understand the Part about Getting Ride of the Vape Shops. Just not sure I get how it Protects the Cigarette Taxes?

So if I lived in Chicago, I would throw my e-Cigarette away and go back to Smoking because Inside the City Limits, they put 95 Cents on each ml of e-Liquid?

What stops me from Driving Outside the City Limits to buy e-Liquids. Or just Buying them over the Internet?

The city will go after the larger retailers, b/c that is where the tax has to be applied.

 

[Tommy-Chi]

There has to be a reasonable amount of tax applied to anything in order to support government. The key there is "reasonable". Sin taxes on booze and smokes are well entrenched. And they're exorbitant. The average pack of smokes costs $7 here in Washington State. The state adds $3.00 in excise tax on each pack of smokes; Chicago, if my sources are correct, just increased their excise tax to almost equal this. Plus we Washingtonians pay sales tax on top of the excise tax, so we're paying ~9.5% sales tax on the $3 excise tax. The same would apply with the proposed 95% tax on vaping products. Amazing how the percentage of excise taxation on vaping products is roughly the same as it is for tobacco products, eh? I think not.

So, the politicos will keep chopping nose and face and arm and leg off as long as there's a revenue stream attached to it that won't get them un-elected. See how long any of them would last if they tried to apply the same level of taxes on food. We would be storming the steps of the Capitol!

But smoking and drinking and vaping are all optional activities, and as long as they remain optional activities pursued by only a fraction of the population, those groups will never have the political clout to affect tax policy. We as vapers have to fight to keep from being taxed as though it's a sin to do it though. And we need to fight to dispell the myth that vaping and smoking are the same thing in the eye of the politicos. When they get that sunk in their thick noodles, maybe we stand a chance of not being treated and taxed like smokers.

I think a pack of Marlboro Lights in Chicago is above $13 a pack.

 

[HauntedMyst]

Given that that only about 20 percent of people in the USA smoke as compared to 56% who drink regularly and that tobacco taxes bring in 3 times the revenue of alcohol taxes, these vaping taxes are nothing more than an attempt at swapping what they perceive as declining tax revenue for one they think is growing. It's going to backfire horrifically given that the average vaper can make simple flavors for pennies in their own homes.

 

[Tommy-Chi]

Yeah, I think 55 cents is correct, but I don't recall anything about kicking that up to 95 cents.

Did you follow the link. They proposed 95 cent per ml. They passed one resolution, started by John Daley - Mayor Richard Daley's brother, and I asked CAASA on Twitter to please clarify, but nobody got back to me. No matter what, by the time this hits the vape shops it will be btw 75 cents and a $1/ml.

The Daley's must be getting kickbacks by BT. I followed the link, and John Daley is the one proposing all of this, and the commission is stacked with Democrats b/c it's Cook County.

 

[Tommy-Chi]

These taxes could be of assistance in weaning people off of vaping and transitioning them back to smoking, and paying the huge combined city, county, state and federal cigarette taxes. Then if they can somehow trick all the city's non-smokers into taking up smoking, they might be able to put a dent in their massive unpaid obligations, and restore a bit of their crashed credit.

The Democrats are fools. They will never dig out of debt. They just find a way to spend more. Look at Mike Madigan who controls Illinois from the state legislature. He is unwilling to cut a nickel and the state is at least $10 to $15 billion in debt. Just wait until these state employees go to retire and they MUST come up with the money.

 

[nicnik]

Did you follow the link. They proposed 95 cent per ml. They passed one resolution, started by John Daley - Mayor Richard Daley's brother, and I asked CAASA on Twitter to please clarify, but nobody got back to me. No matter what, by the time this hits the vape shops it will be btw 75 cents and a $1/ml.

The Daley's must be getting kickbacks by BT. I followed the link, and John Daley is the one proposing all of this, and the commission is stacked with Democrats b/c it's Cook County.

Was there another link besides the link to CASAA? If so, I missed it. Can you post (or repost) the link?

 

[Tommy-Chi]

Was there another link besides the link to CASAA? If so, I missed it. Can you post (or repost) the link?

No that was all that there was announced. The amendment is for a tax up to 95 cents + the 20 cent county tax makes it over $1 per ml.

 

[nicnik]

No that was all that there was announced. The amendment is for a tax up to 95 cents + the 20 cent county tax makes it over $1 per ml.

I'm not seeing any such thing from the CASAA link.

 

[MouseD]

I can see this driving most folks living there to start making their own or is this tax going to apply to anyone ordering stuff online and having it shipped in too?

 

[pennysmalls]

Except Indiana has very oppresive vaping liquid laws.

Edit: I think I replied to the wrong message. Anyway, driving to Indiana won't help.

Believe it or not there are shops in Indiana that have conformed and meet all Indiana requirements. My local is one of them. Chicagoans would have to choose from house made liquids come July though.

 

[pennysmalls]

I believe vaping is going to change things not only with the tobacco industry but it's going to expose fraud in government, pharma and anti smoking as well. It's going to be a long time before it all comes to light but our grandchildren are going to have to some interesting reading in American history. And of course Chicago is right in the thick of it, no surprise there.

 

[Hightower]

My Indiana vape shop has conformed to all the new laws, but the price of e-liquid hasn't increased. I get 2 15ml bottles of Space Jam for $20.00 plus 7% tax. My local shop is actually cheaper than ordering online for the E-liquids (premium) I buy. Go figure....

Even with the strict Indiana laws, it will still be worthwhile to drive to Indiana for juice.

Just drove by Wrigley Field yesterday and there were 2 vape shops per block. Will be sad to see these shops close due to the ridiculous local tax.

I understand the need for tax, but when the tax is more than the product retails for, something is wrong.

 

[mostlyclassics]

How, Exactly, has a Chicago Elected Official said that this will be Good for Chicago? When people will just take their Business outside the City Limits.

The majority of Chicago vapers live in what we in Chicagoland delicately refer to as the "inner city." Residents there typically do not have cars, nor is access to the suburbs via public transportation all that easy or time-efficient. Furthermore, a lot of those residents don't have access to the internet, know how to get online, or even have a means to pay for internet purchases (i.e., credit cards).

Their retail purchases — just about all of them — are made on the streets where they live.

Hence my concern about yet another black market developing in Chicago, this time for vaping hardware and e-liquids. Chicago already has a retail network in place for illegal d***s and untaxed cigarettes. That retail network is called "gangs." Those gangs sell not only to the "inner city" but to residents of the toniest sections of Chicago, like the Near North, the Gold Coast, etc. It's not too far of a stretch to predict that the gangs will take over gray-market vaping hardware and e-liquids as well.

 

[zoiDman]

The majority of Chicago vapers live in what we in Chicagoland delicately refer to as the "inner city." Residents there typically do not have cars, nor is access to the suburbs via public transportation all that easy or time-efficient. Furthermore, a lot of those residents don't have access to the internet, know how to get online, or even have a means to pay for internet purchases (i.e., credit cards).

Their retail purchases — just about all of them — are made on the streets where they live.

Hence my concern about yet another black market developing in Chicago, this time for vaping hardware and e-liquids. Chicago already has a retail network in place for illegal d***s and untaxed cigarettes. That retail network is called "gangs." Those gangs sell not only to the "inner city" but to residents of the toniest sections of Chicago, like the Near North, the Gold Coast, etc. It's not too far of a stretch to predict that the gangs will take over gray-market vaping hardware and e-liquids as well.

The Whole thing just Reeks of Governmental Overreach.

What have the Local News Outlets had to say about it. Have Vapers contacted Media Outlets?

 

[CMD-Ky]

When the government begins to outlaw something or tax it to non-existence then only two groups will have access: the politically connected and criminals - I know, I know, I just stated a tautology.

I can't believe Chicago will collect much in the way of taxes, since so many Chicagoans will now buy their e-juices outside the city, typically on the internet. Those without internet access will buy from the black market. Can you guess who the black-market merchants will be?

On the other hand, a lot of vape-shop employees will now be beholden to their Chicago Democrat overlords for unemployment benefits. And the owners of those vape-shops will lose their investments, in many cases their lifetime savings. Sure doesn't make me want to invest in any kind of a job-creating Chicago business.

Brilliant. Just brilliant.

As I've said elsewhere, there's a reason Chicago has lost a million residents in the last fifty years. I encourage Chicagoans to vote with their feet: leave. And if you absolutely can't leave, boycott the nit-wit Chicago voters who voted the mayor and moronic city council into office. Do you really need to buy that product or service within Chicago, or can you get it elsewhere? We live just north of Chicago, and we've been boycotting Chicago since February 2014, when that idiotic "vaping = smoking" ordinance went into effect. And when my wife retires, we're leaving Illinois.

 

[nicnik]

Believe it or not there are shops in Indiana that have conformed and meet all Indiana requirements. My local is one of them. Chicagoans would have to choose from house made liquids come July though.

Good to hear things aren't as bad as it looked like they would be in Indiana. At least for now.

 

[pennysmalls]

Good to hear things aren't as bad as it looked like they would be in Indiana. At least for now.

Yeah not as bad for some shops. In the case of my particular local vape shop I believe it's because the owners have money, at least enough liquid cash to conform. I don't think a lot of other shops will be so lucky but it may not matter now. The deeming will most likely shut down all Indiana shops that can afford to conform. Which does have me wondering if the deeming will now piss off Indiana politicians. They may have had the stage set here to make some profit off these shops with future taxation but the deeming will eliminate that possibility.

 

[CasketWeaver]

Chicago... hell Illinois in GENERAL levies taxes on everything it can. I know, I'm originally from that place.