Braun: State funding for cancer research falls victim to sales-tax increase

It’s easy to find examples of how years of one-party rule have made living in Washington less safe, less affordable and less beneficial for our children — but here’s one that doesn’t fall neatly into any of those three columns.

By expanding the state sales tax to more goods and services, Democrats are also defunding cancer research in our state.

This will happen Jan. 1, when the section of the new tax law affecting nicotine products takes effect. The other sections already kicked in Oct. 1, raising the cost of things such as cable and streaming services, and live presentations such as driving school and even in-person historical reenactments at museums.

The Legislature’s majority Democrats opened the door to this by approving the tax increase in the first place, as part of a package that will enrich government by an estimated $12.2 billion over four years.

However, our state’s Democrat governor also had a hand. He controls the executive branch, including the Department of Revenue — and as the state’s tax-collection agency, DOR is also responsible for this fiasco.

Washington has taxed cigarettes since 1935 and other tobacco products since 1959. The law created this year through Senate Bill 5814 extends to “nicotine, whether derived from tobacco or created synthetically.”

On the surface, it applies the 95% tobacco products tax rate to nicotine pouches. However, DOR’s interpretation also applies the new tax to vapor products that contain nicotine. This is even though the state has been taxing vapor products since 2019, regardless of whether they contain nicotine.

Half of the money generated through the vape tax is dedicated to the state’s Cancer Research Endowment fund. It was established in 2015, and by law the state matches those dollars annually up to $10 million. Grants from the fund are awarded to promote cancer research in Washington.

In 2018, the CARE fund was renamed by legislators in 2018 in honor of the late Sen. Andy Hill, one of the brightest stars our state Legislature will ever see – and a non-smoker who was taken from us by lung cancer.

Here’s the problem: Starting Jan. 1, because of the change Democrats made this year, tax revenue from the sales of vapor products containing nicotine will stop going into the Andy Hill CARE fund. It will go into the general fund instead.
The only vape-tax dollars left for the CARE fund will come from the sale of nicotine-free products. That’s a significantly smaller amount, so it also will mean a corresponding decrease in the matching money from the state.

I don’t believe our Democrat colleagues would knowingly defund cancer research. However, it’s clearly a victim of their irresponsible tendency to tax first and ask questions later.

A sales tax expansion wasn’t on the list of nine tax increases circulated by Senate Democrats weeks ahead of the 2025 session. It popped up with just 11 days to go in this year’s session, after the majority’s dream of an innovation-crushing “wealth tax” hit a roadblock.

Democrats voted the sales tax bill out of the Senate just three days after its introduction, and House Democrats moved it through in even less time.

The rush to adopt the tax and put most of the increases into effect just five months later became a nightmare for tens of thousands of Washington employers. As the summer ticked by, they still were waiting for guidance from DOR about how to collect the tax starting Oct. 1.

This same haste from Democrats is behind the gutting of cancer research funding. There just wasn’t time for anyone on the outside to thoroughly scrutinize the nicotine tax part of the bill before its passage.

On top of that, the governor’s budget office failed to share the implications for the cancer research fund in its initial estimate of what the legislation would cost to implement. That fact didn’t come out until weeks after the session ended.

It isn’t lost on Republicans that Andy Hill, as chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee from 2013 through 2016, never would have allowed a blunder like this to happen. That’s because he viewed tax increases as a last resort and led what was then our majority’s successful effort to fight off one Democrat tax proposal after another. Simply put, tax bills can’t make mistakes if they don’t become law.

Similarly, Democrats could have avoided this embarrassment by adopting the 2025-27 operating budget, offered up by Senate Republicans, that didn’t need tax increases to balance. Our $ave Washington budget proposal proved it could be done, without new taxes or cuts to core public services, but Democrats rejected it twice.

Legislators have a few options for minimizing or even preventing the damage. If Democrats called even a brief special session to reduce spending and minimize the looming state budget deficit, we could also protect the Andy Hill CARE fund before the new year rolls around. Otherwise, it must wait until after our regular session convenes Jan. 12.
Our state had a proven path for supporting cancer research until the Democrat desire to enrich government got in the way. Now, cancer research loses and big government wins. We must fix this and do better.

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Sen. John Braun of Centralia serves the 20th Legislative District, which spans parts of four counties from Yelm to Vancouver. He became Senate Republican leader in 2020.