But, Luisa,
vaping (even if only in private) is legal in all 50 states, and us vapers presently have access to the internet for our goods. Those two states, which have legalized that substance which we dare not name here, don't have that problem: the market for that substance is captive to those two states. So, it's possible for them to tax that substance. At any rate, so far Colorado has received only a few tens of millions of dollars of taxes from that substance. Chicago's unfunded pension liabilities
alone are in excess of ten
billion dollars with a "b." And never mind the city's other unpaid liabilities. It's thought by analysts that the only way for Chicago to dig its way out of its financial hole, in addition to drastically cutting back or charging much more for city services, is to
double property taxes. Politically (and economically) this isn't possible. Collecting their precious cigarette tax helps to kick the can down the road a bit further. I just came across this fascinating and terrifying article, which explains graphically what Chicago is up against:
Chicago's vanishing middle class.
