On October 4, Governor Gavin Newsom approved a 12.5 percent excise tax on vaping products in California.
The bill, authored by Democratic State Senator Anna Caballero, intends to tax vaping products at a rate closer to cigarettes and, runs the theory, consequently discourage youth vaping.
According to The Los Angeles Times, it’s projected that the tax will yield $38.4 million in revenue by 2023, “with money to be split among several programs, including early childhood education, public health education and grants to students from disadvantaged communities pursuing an education in the health field.”
One can only hope that these programs will teach students better science and economic than their creators have displayed. The usual criticism on vape taxes apply: Because cigarettes and vapes are substitute goods, as the logic should go, the former should be taxed more than the latter, in order to incentivize people to switch to a less harmful alternative. California also has a wholesale tax for vape distributors around 60 percent, though customers may not have necessarily experienced the burden.
Alex Norcia – Filter – 2021-10-06.
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