A tariff on e-toking?

Puff, puff tax - that could be the reality for e-cigarette users if a bill introduced in City Council yesterday gets passed.

Just like the city's $2-per-pack tax on tobacco cigarettes that went into effect a couple weeks ago, this new $2 tax on e-cigs would go to the public schools.

"No idea should be off the table when it comes to finding new dollars for the school district," said Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown, primary sponsor of the bill.

Brown introduced the measure with the help of Councilman Bill Greenlee, who earlier this year got the sale of e-cigs to minors banned as well as puffing in public places.

There's no word yet on whether Mayor Nutter supports it, and while there seems to be a general sense of approval among her mostly Democratic colleagues, there is opposition from the e-cig industry.

"Hundreds of thousands of dollars in higher taxes will financially cripple new small businesses in Philadelphia," Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, wrote in a letter addressed to Council yesterday.

"The small, but growing segment of vapor specialty stores rely on the sale of these products as their sole source of revenue. To make the products sold in these stores uncompetitive will drive sales onto the Internet and outside of city limits."

Brown said it is unclear how much money the tax would generate for the school district. This is the first time a municipality has considered it, she said.

Because the state does not levy a tax on e-cigarettes, the city does not need approval from Harrisburg to enact its own. If passed, the law would go into effect July 1.