MINNEAPOLIS -- As state legislatures adjourn or continue to move toward final adjournment, various tobacco-related bills have either been enacted into law or failed due to adjournment of the 2014 state legislative sessions. The following is a list of state tobacco legislative bills that have either been passed or have failed to be enacted:
Alabama: House Bill 120 that would have assessed a five cents per cigarette “user fee,” House Bill 39 that would have increased the cigarette tax to 75 cents per pack, and Senate Bill 471 that proposed raising the cigarette tax over a four year period to a final tax rate of $1.425 per pack, all failed due to adjournment of the legislature.
Iowa: House Bill 2109 and Senate Bill 566 that define alternative nicotine products and prohibit the sale of these products to minors was signed into law by the governor.
Kentucky: House Bill 220 that would have increased the cigarette tax by $1.00 per pack, raised the tax on moist snuff and chewing tobacco to 168%, and increased the tax on all other tobacco products to 40%, including electronic cigarettes, failed due to adjournment of the legislature. House Bill 319 that defines alternative nicotine tobacco products as “other tobacco products” for the purpose of applying the state’s current 15% tobacco excise tax on e-cigarettes also failed due to the adjournment of the legislature. Both House Bill 173 and Senate Bill 117, which would have prohibited smoking in public places and workplaces, failed due to adjournment of the legislature. Senate Bill 109, which prohibits the sale of electronic cigarettes to individuals under the age of 18, was signed into law by the governor.
Louisiana: Senate Bill 12 that defines nicotine vapor products as a tobacco product and prohibits the sale of electronic cigarettes to minors was signed into law by the governor.
Maryland: House Bill 443 and Senate Bill 589 that would have increased the cigarette tax by $1.00 per pack and also raised the tax on other tobacco products failed due to adjournment of the legislature.
Minnesota: House Bill 2402 that prohibits the sale of electronic cigarette products to minors, requires child resistant packaging for all nicotine and non-nicotine liquids intended to be used in electronic cigarettes, and bans the sale of electronic cigarettes at moveable places of business like a mall kiosk, was signed into law by the governor. The child resistant packaging requirements take effect on January 1, 2015.
Mississippi: House Bill 1250 that would have increased the cigarette tax by 50 cents per pack and House Bill 1251 that would have increased the tobacco tax rate to 22.5% both failed due to adjournment of the legislature. Also, Senate Bills 656, 2171, and 2607 and House Bill 739, which would have prohibited smoking in public places and in places of employment, all died due to adjournment of the session.
North Carolina: House Bill 1050 was passed and signed into law by the governor which taxes nicotine in a solution used for electronic vapor products at a rate of five cents per fluid milliliter of consumable nicotine solution product.
While several state legislatures meet year round, the vast majority of state legislative sessions will be adjourned by June 30.
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