(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynold says she’ll keep pushing for an increase in Iowa’s tax on cigarettes and other tobacco products — and a new 15 percent sales tax on vaping products. Her proposed tax hikes were included in a bill that failed in a Senate committee last week. Reynolds held a news conference earlier this month to release the latest University of Iowa research on cancer rates in Iowa and proposed the tax hike as one way to reduce smoking and address the fact Iowa has more late stage lung cancer cases than other states.

A House committee has considered a bill that includes some of the governor’s Make America Healthy Again or MAHA  agenda, but House Republicans removed the tobacco tax hike from the legislation. Reynolds says she understands her fellow Republicans are reluctant to raise taxes on cigarettes, vapes and consumable hemp products.

Reynolds is proposing that the state tax on a pack of cigarettes go up to the national average, which is just over two-dollars a pack. Reynolds also recommends the state start charging a 15 percent tax on vaping products and consumable hemp products.