(Radio Iowa) – House Speaker Pat Grassley says House Republicans are wrestling with the governor’s proposal to raise the state tax on tobacco products and start assessing a 15 percent sales tax on vaping products. He suggests it doesn’t fit with their recent moves to cut state income taxes. “Obviously we’ve continued to reduce taxes on Iowans — looking a 3.8% flat (income) tax, eliminating it on retirees,” Grassley says. Reynolds told reporters yesterday (Thursday) that she’s not a governor who raises taxes, but supports raising taxes on products that have been linked to lung cancer aligns with the Make America Healthy Again or MAHA agenda.

House Republicans have already taken the step of removing the tax increase from the governor’s MAHA bill. “Whether it pops up again, I can’t say,” Grassley said, “but our first action was not to include it in the bill that it was proposed in, so right now I think that’s kind of the holding pattern we’re in at this point.” Before the 2026 legislative session started, Senate Majority Leader Mike Klimesh — a former smoker — said vaping productts deliver nicotine just like cigarettes and he’d have a conversation with his fellow Republicans in the senate about taxing vapes.

The governor’s broader proposal which would tax vapes AND raise tobacco taxes failed in a senate committee last week. A state report indicates the cigarette smoking rate among Iowa adults has dropped to five-point-six percent, but the use of e-cigarettes continues to rise and 23-and-a-half percent of 18 and 24 year olds vape regularly.