KY Governor Calls for 20% E-Cig Tax

A tax reform plan crafted by Kentucky’s governor, Steve Beshear, includes a 20% tax on electronic cigarettes.

The bill, currently under discussion in Kentucky’s house appropriations and revenue committee, would also raise cigarette taxes by 40 cents per pack.

“Legislators should remove these provisions from the plan before considering the rest of the package during this year’s legislative session. While Governor Beshear’s Kentucky Competes proposal is a good start for a discussion on the need for tax reform in the state, it represents a $210 million annual net tax hike on Kentucky taxpayers, which is the last thing Kentucky residents need after seeing over 20 new and higher federal taxes imposed from Washington in just the past few years.”

–Grover Norquist, ATR

A statement issued by Americans for Tax Reform expresses disapproval of the new e-cigarette tax, calling them “punitive for low-income individuals,” and saying the new taxes “make little sense.”

A letter from ATR president Grover Norquist to the Kentucky legislature opposes the cigarette tax, but calls the new e-cigarette tax “particularly troubling.”

“For decades, lawmakers have tried to mitigate smoking and the harm it causes through punitive taxation and heavy regulation,” Norquist says in the letter. “However, with e-cigarettes, the free market has provided a solution to a problem that social engineers have not been able to address through stiff government regulations. The imposition of new taxes on these products perpetuates an issue lawmakers have spent so much time trying to eliminate, as e-cigarettes cut down on smoking and people’s dependence on tobacco cigarettes.”

The letter goes on to call the new taxes “shameless tax grabs that make little sense from a revenue or publioc health perspective.”

KY Governor Wants Tax on Electronic Cigarettes – Tristatehomepage-Eyewitness News.

KY Governor Calls for 20% E-Cig Tax