Ban on flavored vapes & cigarettes returns, with added taxes

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Democrats in the House and Senate have reintroduced a ban on the sale of flavored cigarettes, vapes, pouches, etc., in Washington, but this time with a hefty sales tax on their unflavored counterparts.

Senate Bill 5803 from Sen. T’wina Nobles, D-Fircrest, and its companion, House Bill 2068 from Rep. Kristine Reeves, D-Federal Way, were introduced earlier this week and were tagged as “necessary to implement the budget,” which exempts them from various procedural deadlines that have already passed.

The previous version of the sales ban was narrower than the new policy proposal and would have created a $234M loss in state taxes. The four-year, $15 billion budget deficit likely made the old version of the flavors ban less of a priority than more revenue-neutral policies in the current fiscal environment.

Lawmakers got smart and stitched a few different tobacco-related bills proposed earlier in session together into a single bill: Stricter policies on what products retailers can sell, steeper penalties for retailers who violate the flavors ban, and a hike on the tax for unflavored cigarettes and other tobacco products. The new flavors ban would raise the sales tax on unflavored cigarettes from $3.025 per pack to $5.025 and apply the same sales tax rate to other tobacco products, such as nicotine vapes and pouches.

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