West Virginia’s tax on cigars and other tobacco products could be increasing, again.

Last July, the tax was increased from 7 to 12 percent of the whole price of other tobacco products and now it could increase to 17 percent.

S.B. 677 would increase the tax on cigars to 17 percent of the wholesale price, impose an additional 50 cent per pack tax on cigarettes and increase the tax on vapor products from 7.5 cents per milliliter to 10.5 per milliliter. If approved, the new taxes would go into effect July 1, 2017—exactly one year after the last round of tax hikes went into effect.

If passed, a cigar with an MSRP of $9.50 would retail for $11.12 according to halfwheel estimates. That cigar currently costs around $10.64 before sales tax and was likely around $10.17 prior to the July 2016 tax hike.

West Virginia has a budget shortfall estimated at a half billion dollars.

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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.