E-cigarette tax would destroy Ohio small businesses

Gov. John Kasich’s steep e-cigarette tax, should lawmakers pass it, will have deep repercussions.

For one, central Ohio small-business owner Alec Cardellino will probably be out of work .

“It would destroy our business,” Cardellino told Ohio Watchdog in a phone interview. “We basically would have to close our doors the day it was enacted.”

E-cigarettes helped Cardellino and a friend quit smoking. In turn, they opened Evolved Vapors in 2013 to sell nicotine vapor products as alternatives to tobacco. They have five full-time employees in three stores.

E-cigarettes contain no tobacco, emit far fewer harmful chemicals than tobacco smoke and contain a “negligible” amount of carcinogens, based on a review of 81 studies Cleveland Clinic highlighted last summer.

But Ohio’s Republican governor, who is fighting for a $1-per pack cigarette tax hike, wants to tax vapor products at the same rate as cigarettes — more than doubling their cost.

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