My colleague Sarah Curry notes in her blog post below that New Jersey Democrats, a state that rarely sees a tax it doesn’t like, had the good sense to say no to an e-cigarette tax as part of there state budget this year. This means that North Carolina, where Republican legislators demonstrated no sense in enacting the tax this year, remains only one of two states in the union to insist on punishing e-cigarette smokers for trying to quit smoking. New Jersey’s decision also exposes the lie told by e-cig tax supporters that somehow the tax is inevitable and that North Carolina would be setting a standard for other states. Apparently New Jersey wasn’t just waiting in the wings to receive guidance from NC lawmakers. So a thumbs up to New Jersey Democrats and a big thumbs down to North Carolina Republicans.
by Dr. Roy Cordato
Senior Economist Emeritus