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Georgia lawmakers explore higher tobacco taxes, flavor bans and vape-shop fees

Woman's Hand Holding Vape And Tobacco Cigarettes Over Wooden Desk
Andrey Popov/Andrey Popov - stock.adobe.com
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Georgia lawmakers are making further efforts to curb smoking. A big challenge for a bipartisan panel in the state House of Representatives reviewing smoking and vaping - with their main proposal - is a tax increase, and tax increases are not popular in an election year.

Their proposed legislation would come up for a vote in 2026. Committee members are considering other ideas too, such as requiring ingredient disclosures on the packaging of vaping products, banning flavors and increasing the $10 licensing fee for vape shops to reduce their numbers.

Back in June, as the committee was getting underway, committee member Representative Ron Stephens said the likelihood of federal budget cuts might decrease resistance to higher taxes on products like tobacco.

Georgia’s tax on cigarettes is among the lowest in the nation. At 37 cents a pack, it is well below the national average of $1.97. Only Missouri, at 17 cents, charges less.

Jeff has delivered morning news at WUGA Radio for more than a decade. He was among a team at CNN that won a George Foster Peabody Award in 1991 for an educational product based on the fall of the Soviet Union. He also won an Edward R. Murrow Award from Radio Television Digital News Association in 2007 for producing a series for WSB Radio on financial scams. Jeff is a graduate of the Babcock Graduate School of Management at Wake Forest University (MBA) and holds a BS in Business Administration from Campbell University, both in North Carolina.
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