Gov. Jared Polis and Democratic lawmakers want to ask voters to increase Colorado’s tax on tobacco and put in place a new tax on popular nicotine vaping products.

If approved in November, the tax measure could bring in an estimated $300 million a year, with funds earmarked for health and education programs.

But the proposal’s backers say a key aim of the tax is to discourage smoking and vaping – particularly among young residents – which cost taxpayers millions in added health care costs.

The proposal would increase the state tax on cigarettes by $1.75 per pack and raise the tax on other tobacco products to 62%. It would also apply the same 62% tax rate to e-cigarettes and other nicotine vaping products, which don’t currently face levies beyond routine sales tax.

The Democrats unveiled the proposal Wednesday at a news conference at the state Capitol attended by health advocates and youngsters who warned about an “epidemic” of vaping among their peers.

Lawmakers have nine days to pass legislation to put the measure on the November ballot before the General Assembly must adjourn on May 3.

“Colorado currently has the highest rate of teen vaping in the nation,” Polis said. “This isn’t a statistic we’re proud of. This measure would help keep tobacco products out of the hands of kids and put more resources toward schools, tobacco prevention and cessation efforts, and toward reducing health care costs.”

He pointed to a recent study that says every 1% reduction in smoking nationally would save Medicaid $2.6 billion annually.

“In Colorado, effectively we are all paying for the externality of that health impact from smoking, so it’s appropriate that the people that are smoking are paying for those externalities,” Polis told The Gazette on Tuesday, before announcing the ballot measure.

He added that any money saved in health care costs by reducing the over-all smoking rate could be spent on expanding or improving Medicaid services.

“That will be direct savings to the state for the lower smoking rate and, of course, to all families in terms of better health outcomes, lower heart disease, lung cancer, and the demonstrable connection between that tax rate and the smoking rate,” Polis said.

The proposed tax would move Colorado’s tax rate on tobacco products from one of the lowest rates in the country – it ranks 37th, according to a Legislative Council report – to around 15th or 20th nationally, Polis said. (Several other states are considering increasing their taxes on the products this year.)

Proceeds from the Colorado tax would be split evenly, with half going to pay for a raft of health care programs – including smoking and vaping cessation programs and mental health programs – and half paying for preschool and after-school programs, said state Rep. Yadira Caraveo, D-Thornton, a pediatrician and one of the bill’s sponsors.

“The big thing for me and for all of us around increasing the price of these products is youth use,” Caraveo said. “I’m a pediatrician, and so I see this issue in clinic every single day – kids as young as 11 who are admitting to me that they or their classmates are vaping, even in class; their teacher has no idea about it.”

She pointed to studies that show every 10% increase in cigarette prices reduces smoking by about 7% among youths and overall use by 4%, with price hikes considered “especially effective” among black, Hispanic and lower-income populations.

“We really have a huge problem with [vaping] in Colorado, especially among youth, and it really has big health impacts,” Caraveo said, noting that one study showed 26% of Colorado high school students said they vape – the highest rate in the nation and twice the national average.

Dr. Robin Deterding, director of the Breathing Institute at Children’s Hospital, which helped put together the proposal, called vaping use among youth “an epidemic that’s come upon us.”

“Kids are very price sensitive,” she said. “This tax will at least help decrease the opportunity that they’ll get these products. … We’ve got to do everything in our power to protect this generation of kids from addictions, and I think this will help do it.”

Kent Thiry, the CEO of Denver-based medical company DaVita Inc., has been tapped to lead the November ballot initiative to raise taxes on tobacco and vaping. Thiry also helped lead last year’s successful campaign to pass a pair of ballot measures reforming the way Colorado draws its congressional and legislative boundaries.

The vaping industry plans to oppose the measure, lobbyist Joe Miklosi, a former Democratic state representative, told Colorado Politics.

“A 62% tax increase will force me to close my five small vaping stores, lay off 46 people, and prevent the vaping industry from helping hundreds of thousands of people quit smoking,” said Amanda Wheeler, who owns two JVapes stores in Colorado and three other retail establishments in Arizona and Oklahoma, in a statement provided by Miklosi.

The Rocky Mountain Smoke Free Alliance and the Vaping Technology Association will be opposed to the measure, he added.

Jake Williams, executive director of Healthier Colorado, called nicotine addiction a nonpartisan issue and said “the tobacco and e-cigarette industries don’t get veto power over the future of our kids.”

Senate Republican Leader Chris Holbert, however, framed his distaste for the proposal along ideological and partisan lines.

Said Holbert: “Any libertarian streak that I had hoped for from this governor has evaporated. The proposed 62% tax on vaping products will limit access and increase costs for the most effective smoking cessation tool in history.

“Furthermore, the attempt to ram this through at the end of the legislative session is irresponsible. I’m encouraging members of the Senate Republican caucus to oppose this bad idea.”

The tobacco and vape tax proposal could be the third tax measure referred to the November ballot this session by the Democratic-controlled legislature.

Lawmakers plan to ask voters to approve permanently lifting state revenue limits under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. They’re also fashioning a proposal to establish sports gambling, which would include a tax dedicated to funding the state’s water plan and other entities.

In 2016, Colorado voters defeated Amendment 72, a proposed tobacco tax increase, by a 6 percentage point margin. The ballot initiative would have raised taxes on cigarettes by $1.75 per pack to pay for health-related measures and tobacco education and cessation programs.