In January, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin of West Virginia introduced a proposed budget that would increase the tax on other tobacco products, including cigars, from 7 to 12 percent of the wholesale price. Now, that proposal is included in a bill in the West Virginia legislature.

Sen. Jeffrey Kessler, D-Marshall, has introduced SB 420, a bill that would increase the tax on other tobacco products, as well as ad a 45 cent tax on cigarettes and a 7.5 cent per milliliter tax on e-cigarette liquid.

The bill is currently in the State Senate Finance Committee.

There are other bills proposed by the state legislature that would affect tobacco products, notably SB 248 which would increase the minimum age to purchase tobacco products to 21.

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Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.