Our Voice: New vaping laws could lead to new taxes

The trouble with sin taxes is they aren’t reliable.

Lawmakers end up becoming dependent on tax revenue from the very products they would like people to quit using — or at least use less.

As an example, it’s great when people improve their health and quit smoking, but it’s bad for government coffers when they stop buying cigarettes.

This particular quandary is playing out now around the country as lawmakers consider whether to tax electronic cigarettes and vaping devices as a way to make up for the drop in revenue once generated by the sale of traditional cigarettes.

We understand the conundrum and the irony. But considering that on a national level e-cigarettes are now being defined as a tobacco product, it makes sense for state lawmakers to tax them as such.

In May, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration brought e-cigarettes and vaping devices under its control. Many state lawmakers had been waiting for such a move in order to justify taxing these items like other tobacco products.

U.S. cigarette smoking rates are slipping while the number of people who vape is rising. After topping at $17.1 billion in 2011, state cigarette tax receipts have gone down to $16.3 billion in 2014, according to a report from the Orzechowski & Walker market research firm and published by Bloomberg News.

The e-cigarette and vaping business, meanwhile, is expected to at least triple to $15.9 billion from 2015 to 2019, according to the same Bloomberg article.

E-cigarettes come in different styles and use bottles of liquid nicotine. Typically, a battery in the device heats the liquid and produces a vapor the user inhales.

Supporters of e-cigarettes say the vaping products are a way to help people quit smoking, similar to a nicotine patch.

But because the e-cigarettes are being touted as a healthier way to “smoke,” there is concern they will be more alluring to teens and end up becoming a gateway to stronger substances.

This past legislative session, Washington lawmakers approved new rules clarifying the packaging and sales of vaping products to curb their appeal to impressionable high school students.

Under the new law, sellers of e-cigarettes must be licensed by the state, pay a fee and keep the vaping products in secure displays. Nicotine containers also must have child-resistant caps. These changes go into effect June 28.

And in August, the new national age limit for using vaping products will be set at 18 years and older.

Some Washington lawmakers proposed in 2015 adding a sales tax to e-cigarettes, but the bill didn’t make it. It was heavily opposed by small business supporters who said adding the tax would put e-cigarette shops out of business.

Making vapor products more expensive also would lessen their appeal and discourage people from making the switch from traditional cigarettes, opponents said.

But now four states have imposed taxes on e-cigarettes — Minnesota, Kansas, Louisiana and North Carolina — and many more are looking into it.

Washington should consider it too.

This story was originally published May 31, 2016 at 1:35 PM with the headline "Our Voice: New vaping laws could lead to new taxes."