MUSCLE SHOALS, Ala. (WHNT) — In a Muscle Shoals City Council meeting held on Monday, the council unanimously approved a new ordinance that puts a tax on vape products sold at stores and businesses within city limits.
Shelves full of vapes at smoke shops in Muscle Shoals will soon see a price increase.
On Monday, the city council voted on a new ordinance that levies a tax on vape products locally, allowing Muscle Shoals to collect and administer the money.
Mayor Mike Lockhart says it was something that needed to be decided on before October comes.
“We had to entertain this before October 1, otherwise everything would’ve been mandated from the state, so for us to be engaged, we had to go ahead and do this. We will not enact it until the notices go out to the stores,” Lockhart said.
The state of Alabama passed a vape product tax earlier this year that will go into effect in October 2026. Under that act, counties or municipalities that decide to levy their own tax before Oct. 1, 2025, will not be eligible to receive a distribution from the proceeds of the state consumable vapor products tax on top of their own tax.
If the council had chosen not to levy the tax, the state of Alabama would collect it starting next year, and Muscle Shoals would receive a smaller share of the money than it would collecting it locally.
“We chose to collect it locally rather than to allow the state to collect it because then that distribution would’ve been less, so we will collect all dollars that are accumulated in our jurisdiction,” Lockhart said.
News 19 stopped by all five of the vape and smoke shops in Muscle Shoals, and the manager of ‘Cali Smoke Shop’ on Avalon Avenue, says he is not surprised by the tax but is disappointed that his products continue to increase in price.
“If it’s going to be mandated, we want to make sure that what is utilized in our city is returned to our city for our use, if the state collected it would’ve been a percentage so we wouldn’t have gotten our full amount, for the sake of the city, those revenues are important,” Lockhart said.
The mayor tells News 19 that local tax collection will not begin until the city sends out notices to businesses. He did not give a timetable as to when those notices will be sent out.
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