WASILLA -- Citing concerns from the business community, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough mayor has vetoed a tax on electronic cigarettes known as e-cigarettes, or "vapes."
The Mat-Su Assembly last week passed an expansion of the borough's existing tobacco tax to include e-cigarettes, joining a handful of other Alaska communities. The devices hold a nicotine-based liquid that's vaporized and inhaled but produces vapor instead of smoke. There's little data on long-term effects or usefulness of the devices in helping cigarette smokers quit.
Mayor Larry DeVilbiss vetoed the revision this week, citing a lack of due process.
"We may have done the right thing but I have been contacted by numerous people in the business who did not know this legislation was about E cigarettes," DeVilbiss wrote in remarks included with his veto notice.
The legislation's title didn't indicate the specifics on e-cigarette taxation, he said. "I believe we would have more balanced testimony on this issue if it were to be retitled and re-advertised with a public hearing," he said.
There was lobbying from the industry on the issue in the form of outreach to several Assembly members, said Assembly member Jim Sykes, who sponsored the addition of the tax, in part to deter young people from starting the habit.
Sykes acknowledged the title of the ordinance change could have been more specific. But he also said the business community should already have been prepared for taxation or regulation on a process as new as e-cigarettes.
The revised ordinance excludes nicotine patches, he said.
The veto will be on the Assembly's Sept. 1 agenda. It takes five votes from the seven-member Assembly to override a veto.
Assembly member Steve Colligan was the only member to vote against the tax, which he said could come with unknown costs to the borough and not necessarily provide a health benefit given the lack of secondhand smoke.
Several members of the public testified in favor of the new tax, including representatives from the Mat-Su Health Foundation, Alaska Family Services and the American Cancer Society.
The Mat-Su has the ninth-highest combined local-state tobacco tax in the country, according to data from the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. The borough levies a $2.28 per-pack tax on cigarettes in addition to Alaska's $2 per-pack tax.
Anchorage's cigarette tax is the seventh highest in the nation.