New bill could tax vapes the same as tobacco in Colorado

Gov. Jared Polis is announcing a late-session bill to ask Colorado voters to significantly raise taxes on cigarettes and impose taxes on nicotine vaping devices to deter youth consumption.

Polis wants to raise the state cigarette tax from 84 cents to $2.59 a pack. Nicotine vaping devices would be taxed at 62 percent of their wholesale price. So, too, would other tobacco products.

Polis said Wednesday the initiative could generate more than $300 million a year, to be spent on educational and health programs.

In 2016, Colorado voters defeated a proposal to triple the state cigarette tax. The tax was last raised in 2004.

Democrats who control the Legislature are certain to pass a referred measure in the waning days of the 2019 session that ends May 3.