CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The state Senate Finance Committee raised some eyebrows last week when it voted to amend Gov. Earl Tomblin’s 45-cent increase on the state cigarette tax to a full $1 raise per pack.
Tomblin’s proposal would have made the per-pack tax $1, while the amendment would raise the tax to $1.55.
House Majority Leader Daryl Cowles (R-Morgan) said there’s a wide range of opinions in the House of Delegates on the bill, if it were to pass the Senate and come to the House floor.
“The Democrats would like it to be a bigger number; a dollar tax per pack, where the House Republican caucus, we have some that would rather not raise any taxes,” Cowles said last week on MetroNews “Talkline”.
The tobacco tax would also tax e-cigarettes for the first time, and include a smaller tax on smokless tobacco products, such as snuff or pouches.
“I think there’s some support in the House Republican caucus for serious consideration of the tobacco tax,” Cowles said. “The question becomes what’s going to come up for a vote, if anything, in the House.”
Cowles there’s also many stipulations to agreeing to this among various delegates.
“There’s some that might be agreeable if we make the strong decisions to cut spending, sweep accounts; make the difficult decisions we need to make,” he said. “Perhaps there’s an opportunity to talk about a tax increase on cigarettes down the road.”
During public hearing at a Senate Finance Committee meeting last week before the bill was moved forward, a few state senators, such as Majority Leader Mitch Carmichael, opposed such a drastic amendment to Tomblin’s proposal, expressing the opinion that it would have no chance of passing the House of Delegates.
The state Senate will take up a second reading of the amended bill on Monday.