From: The Boston Globe
Lawmakers seen as cool to levy on electronic cigarettes
Aides to Governor Deval Patrick have dropped an initiative for a tax on e-cigarettes after gauging the political appetite among lawmakers and finding it limited, legislative officials said.
Administration officials checked in recent weeks to find out whether members of the Legislature. who have shied from some of the tax hikes that Patrick has previously proposed, would go along with a levy on the devices, which offer an experience similar to smoking tobacco. The administration was considering including the tax in the budget Patrick will submit next week.
Massachusetts would have become the second state, after Minnesota, to impose a tobacco tax on e-cigarettes at a rate similar to traditional cigarettes, according to the National Council of State Legislatures.
Reaction was cool, said legislative officials. Patrick’s budget proposal, set for a Jan. 22 rollout, will not include the e-cigarette levy, spokeswoman Bonnie McGilpin said.