(Radio Iowa) – A bill setting a five-cent tax on vapes and nicotine pouches has won approval in an Iowa Senate committee. Tony Phillips is a lobbyist for R-A-I Services, which sells VUS — a digital vapor cigarette — and Grizzly Nicotine Pouches. “Based on our industry surveys and data, there were…17 million nicotine pouch cans sold in Iowa in 2025 (and) 280 million milliliters of vape product sold in Iowa,” Phillips said, “and if you back those numbers out with the tax rate in this bill…for 2025 it would have generated $14.8 million.”
Anti-tobacco groups say the tax proposed for vaping products is far lower than the state tax on cigarettes and will not reduce nicotine use in Iowa. Amy Campbell is a lobbyist for a number of medical groups as well as the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network. “We know that young people are particularly price conscious,” Campbell said. “…If you truly want to prevent the use of these products, then we need to start and have a better taxation policy.”
The bill calls for up to three million dollars of the taxes raised on these products to go toward pediatric cancer research in Iowa. The parents of children who’ve been treated at the Children’s Hospital Iowa City spoke in favor of the bill — but they also support a House bill with three million dollars for research of childhood cancers that is not connected to a tax increase.
Kristi Polonsky of Fairfield has become an advocate after her 15 year old son Jack died of cancer last July. “This is not the perfect bill, but it is a bill that would do good,” she said. “It would allow these researchers to get started on better treatments for children.” Phil Jeneary, a lobbyist for Iowa vape shops, says due to changes in federal regulations, there are only a handful of products that can be legally sold. “Just in the last year and a half, two years the number of stores that our members have that have closed is quite alarming,” said Jeneary, who represents Iowans for Alternatives to Smoking and Tobacco, “so not opposed to a tax or have that conversation, but policies need to change so our stores can stay open.”
The bill is eligible for Senate debate after winning approval in the Senate Ways and Means Committee last (Tuesday) night.
