E-Cigarettes: Informing tax policy research in California

This meeting was attended by over 60 people from around the state with experts joining us from around the country, including representatives from California’s State Government, the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, health voluntaries, tobacco control advocates, TRDRP-funded researchers, and representatives of California’s priority populations.  The Goals of the meeting were to:

• Initiate a discussion among key tobacco research and control stakeholders in California about the many issues surrounding the regulation and taxation of e-cigarettes
• Review the current status of e-cigarette taxation, both domestically and internationally
• Identify research needs surrounding the taxation of e-cigarettes

All attendees agreed that this was an important meeting that clarified the many thorny issues concerning e-cigarette taxation: should the liquid and or the device be taxed; should it be taxed at the same rate as regular cigarettes; do we define e-cigarettes as a tobacco product; and what are the critical research questions that must be addressed concerning e-cigarettes and taxation.    TRDRP is compiling a summary report of the meeting so that the many issues discussed can be shared broadly.

Below are links to conference materials:

1. Attendee List
2. Meeting Agenda
3. Speaker Biographies
4. Speaker Slide Presentations:

• Bart Aoki, Director, Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program - E-Cigarettes: Informing Tax Policy and Research in California
• Phillip Gardiner, Program Officer, Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program -  E-Cigarettes: The Landscape
• Mark Meaney, Staff Attorney, Tobacco Control Legal Consortium, Public Health Law Center -  Taxation of E-Cigarettes: Where Are We Today?
• Frank Chaloupka, Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago - Taxing E-Cigarettes - Options and Potential Public Health Impact
• Phillip Gardiner, Program Officer, Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program -  Taxing E-Cigarettes in Tobacco Country
• Bill Kimsey, Administrator, Special Taxes Appeals Branch, California State Board Equalization -  E-Cigarette Tax Policy in California
• Molly Moilanen, Director of Public Affairs, Clearway Minnesota; Co-Chair of Raise it for Health Coalition -Taxation of E-Cigarettes in Minnesota
• Wendy Max, Professor, University of California San Francisco - Taxing E-Cigarettes; What Research is Needed?
• Lisa Henriksen, Senior Research Scholar, Stanford University -  More Research Gaps for an E-Cigarette Tax: A Communication Research Perspective

E-Cigarette Tax Landscape (as of January 2015):

1. 24 states were considering E-Cigarette Taxation Bills (in red)
2. 2 states, Minnesota and North Carolina have adopted E-Cigarette Taxation measures (in green)
3. 1 City, Petersburg Alaska, is taxing E-Cigarettes (in green)