By Tyler Arnold
Credit: Isabella Mendes
A Pennsylvania state senator wants to repeal the 40 percent wholesale tax on vaping products that critics say has forced the shut down of about 100 stores.
Republican Sen. Camera Bartolotta introduced a measure that would replace the tax with a 5-cents per milliliter retail tax on the liquid products.
“As more shop owners continue to go out of business as a result of this tax, it becomes even less likely that the state will collect the amount of revenues projected for the current year’s budget,” Bartolotta said in a prepared statement. “It is critical to revisit this issue and plot a better way forward that promotes growth in the industry.”
Industry sources say more than 100 vape shops in the state have closed as a result of the tax.
“This 40 percent tax is a cancer, it needs a second opinion, and it needed it yesterday,” John Dietz, vice president of the Pennsylvania Vape Association, wrote on the organization’s website.
