Chicago To Ring In 2016 With A Tax On Vaping
By Mae Rice in News on Dec 29, 2015 11:09PM
Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s administration is seriously tackling vaping, almost as if vaping were the major problem Chicago is facing right now.
Starting New Year’s day, the city will introduce a tax on e-cigarettes, The Liquid Nicotine Product Tax.
The tax, which will apply along with regular sales tax, will be 80 cents per “product unit,” and 55 cents per milliliter of vape-able liquid or gel.
The tax will roughly double the cost of vaping in the city, according to TimeOut Chicago.
The tax was passed at Chicago’s October budget meeting, as part of an effort to raise city revenues.
At the time of the meeting, the Tribune forecast that the tax would bring in $1 million in 2016.
The tax will kick in just after a a public health campaign to educate the city's alleged hordes of vaping teens on their hobby’s dangers, which the city announced last week. (This campaign at times sounds like it’s about rodent control, thanks to the phrase “liquid poison.”)