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<p>In 2013, after planning and saving for a year-and-a-half, I opened my first business, Fat Cat Vapor Shop in Montoursville. I&#8217;d overcome many challenges and assumed some gut-wrenching risks to get there, but I did it &#8211; and I was proud. But less than three years later, my business &#8211; my dream &#8211; is on the brink of shutting down.</p><p>It&#8217;s not that I lack customers, or have too much competition, or have mismanaged my business. No, my shop is about to close because state government is taxing it to death.</p><p>Before I found vapor products, I&#8217;d been smoking cigarettes for 32 years. I was so grateful that vape products helped me get away from combustible cigarettes that I wanted to share this alternative. My business let me pursue my passion, provide a valuable service, and make a living doing it.</p><p>But in July, the state suddenly imposed a massive 40 percent wholesale tax on my business and more than 300 others like it. Worse, a &#8220;floor tax&#8221; provision taxes products that we&#8217;ve already purchased.</p><p>If I have $100,000 worth of inventory in my shop on Oct. 1, I have to cut a check to the state for $40,000. Many small businesses, including mine, simply can&#8217;t afford this.</p><p>Despite all the talk I hear from Gov. Tom Wolf and lawmakers about job creation, this tax seems designed to do one thing: kill off Pennsylvania&#8217;s vape shop industry and the 1,500 full-time jobs it provides. As many as 92 percent of Pennsylvania vape shops are expected to close.</p><p>And for what? After being rushed through with little debate, the tax is estimated to generate only $13.3 million &#8211; a mere 2 percent of the revenue needed to balance the state budget.</p><p>Can you guess how much this tax will raise from a store that shuts down? Not a dime. Both the sales tax that my customers pay and the income tax that I pay will dry up.</p><p>Ironically, the state could end up collecting less money with this tax than without it.</p><p>Consumers will lose, too. A growing mountain of scientific evidence shows vapor products help smokers improve their health.</p><p>In August of last year, Public Health England &#8211; an agency within the U.K. government &#8211; concluded that vapor products are at least 95 percent less harmful than combustible cigarettes. In April of this year, the Royal College of Physicians released a separate report that reached the same conclusion.</p><p>Having your livelihood wiped out by your state government isn&#8217;t simply frustrating, it&#8217;s morally wrong. Even more disturbing, the state is bankrupting businesses that help people to improve their quality of life.</p><p>Lawmakers have an obligation to right this wrong and avoid crushing an entire industry.</p><p>State Rep. Jeff Wheeland, R-Williamsport, is proposing legislation that would repeal the 40 percent wholesale tax and replace it with a 5-cents-per-milliliter tax, like what exists in North Carolina and Louisiana. While I do not believe vapor products deserve their own tax on top of sales tax, this plan would at least allow me to keep my business open.</p><p>If lawmakers don&#8217;t find a solution soon, my business &#8211; and hundreds of others &#8211; won&#8217;t be there to support people trying to quit cigarettes. This unaffordable tax will close my doors for good. It will be an unnatural death at the hands of a horrible public policy.</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>Chris Hughes</p><p>Guest columnist</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Chris Hughes is a Lycoming County resident and owns Fat Cat Vapor Shop in Montoursville.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Chris Hughes: New tax on vapor products will doom my shop and others in Pennsylvania