Politicians are known for their money-grabbing ways and it seems Washington Governor JayInslee is one of the biggest around. On Thursday (December 18), Inslee (or perhaps heshould be called Governor Scrooge) outlined his budget plans and they include a 95% tax It’s a desperate act by a politician who has a massive state budget gap to deal with. Theplans have rightfully been met with protest by the American Vaping Association and vaporshops based in Washington.Kim Thompson owns ‘The Vaporium’ in Fife and believes such a tax would “demonize theproduct, make it look as though it was as bad as smoking.” That’s definitely a good pointbecause such levels of taxation are hardly going to be imposed on something that’s reallygood for you. Thompson also believes the outrageous and unjustified tax would makevaping and traditional cigarettes more similar in pricing and claims: “It would give us lessincentive to the smoke to say, hey, give this a try." Above all though, her view is that “taxingsmall businesses out of business is bad business.”But the only business the governor is interested in is finding ways of plugging that budgetgap. Representative Reuven Carlyle is another politician who is no friend of the e-cigaretteindustry. He proposed a similar tax last year and of course supports this new plan. Hismisguided view is that this is “a fairness issue” and a “parody issue.” He believes the plan issimply aimed at bringing the level of taxation on e-cigarettes to the “same level of taxation ofother similar products.” Those similar products include snuff and cigars that, like othertobacco products are taxed at 95%.Now I’m sure most politicians do have some degree of intelligence but why can’t they listento Kim Thompson who says: “There's zero tobacco in my product. Zero tobacco. We do notpromote tobacco; we do not promote smoking, or anything that has cancer causingingredients."Carlyle of course disagrees because e-cigarettes contain nicotine. I wonder if there’s a 95%tax on nicotine patches in Washington.The American Vaping Association have called on customers to call the governor and let himknow how they feel, saying: “They are ready to rally and to converge in Olympia.”With the e-cigarette industry becoming more and more successful, taxing them is becomingeven more inevitable. Surely though the level of taxation needs to be a fair one in order toensure that the good the product can cause in helping smokers give up tobacco cigarettescan continue.