OMAHA. NEB. (KMTV) — It's official.
With little discussion, the Omaha City Council approved adding all vaping products to the existing three percent-occupation tax. This includes vape juice and vaping devices.
Vape store owners asked the council to remove the devices, but they ultimately kept them in.
They did remove nicotine patches, lozenges and other products that have nicotine in it, but are used to help users quit.
"Things that are recognized as smoking cessation products according to the FDA. I think that'a important that we don't want to discourage people and there's a lot of people that sell those and only those products and not anything we're addressing,” says council-member Aimee Melton.
The tax was set to expire at the end of 2022 but the council today, got rid of that requirement and now it will on indefinitely even though some aren't too happy about that.
The lone no vote was council-member Aimee Melton. She wanted a heads up that the vote was happening before the council decided to tax tobacco and vape users indefinitely.
"I wish that we would have known about it before now, for time to discuss,” says Melton.
Council-member Rich Pahls voted to get rid of the 2022 sunset on the tax, but is generally in favor of them because it forces future councils to decide if their necessary to keep around.
"To me sunsets, have value because it causes us to rethink those down the line and different council members,” says Pahls.
