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Vaping would cost a little more in Omaha than surrounding communities if the City Council expands the city’s tobacco tax this month.

Council President Chris Jerram has proposed erasing the existing city ordinance’s exemption for nicotine delivery devices.

Mayor Jean Stothert told The World-Herald last week that she supports extending the tax to vaping for public health and tax fairness reasons.

The proposed change would add the city’s 3% occupation tax on tobacco products to e-cigarettes and other vaping products.

City finance officials estimate that expanding the tobacco tax to vaping would raise about $1 million more than the $3.5 million to $3.7 million a year it raises now.

Vaping retailers said they plan to fight the tax. The public hearing on the issue is Oct. 22.

Jerram said his goal is to prevent a new generation of young people from vaping and getting addicted to nicotine.

Public health experts at the Mayo Clinic and John’s Hopkins University have said that young people first exposed to nicotine by vaping are more likely than their unexposed peers to use tobacco products.