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Public-health groups push Senate to restore tobacco-prevention funding and vapor-retailer licensing in HB 96
Summary
Public-health witnesses asked the Senate to restore governor-proposed funding for the Tobacco Use Prevention Fund, reinsert a vapor-retailer licensing program and adopt a cigarette tax increase the House removed, arguing those steps would reduce youth tobacco and vaping use and generate revenue.
Leah Baylor, a health educator with Clark County Combined Health District, told the Senate Health Committee that local enforcement and education depend on state investments in the Tobacco Use Prevention Fund and a vapor-retailer licensing program. Baylor said local compliance checks in Clark County found a 35 percent failure rate before tobacco-retailer licensing and an 8 percent failure rate after licensing and fines were enacted locally. She asked the committee to support the executive budget level for the tobacco prevention fund.
Dustin Hoelfinger of the American Heart Association and representatives from the American Lung Association and ACS CAN urged the Senate to restore the governor’s proposed $10,000,000 per year for the Tobacco Use Prevention Fund. They said the House reduced that fund to $6,000,000 per year and removed the governor’s proposed cigarette tax increase. Witnesses argued a $1.50-per-pack cigarette tax increase (with a parallel tax measured as 42% of wholesale price for other tobacco products and vapor products) would reduce youth initiation, help adult smokers quit and generate revenue for prevention and health programs.
Hoelfinger also asked the committee to reinsert a vapor-retailer registry so that application fees and annual license revenues would be directed to the Tobacco Use Prevention Fund and to strengthen enforcement against retailers who sell to underage customers. The American Lung Association’s testimony cited state youth-use rates and urged equalizing tax treatment across tobacco and vaping products.
Why it matters: Witnesses tied prevention funding, retailer licensing, and tax policy to reductions in youth tobacco initiation and long-term health-care savings. Local compliance data and national research were cited to support funding and policy changes.
No committee action was taken; witnesses asked the Senate to restore the House and executive provisions they described as necessary to protect youth and fund prevention.
