LANSING — Nicotine products like vapes and oral pouches would face the same 32% wholesale tax as most tobacco products under a new proposal from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer that aims to “curb usage and protect public health.”

Extending the tax to non-tobacco nicotine products would “close a loophole” in state law, Kyle Guerrant, the deputy state budget director, told lawmakers Wednesday during a presentation on the governor’s new budget proposal.

While Michigan taxes cigarettes at a flat $2 per pack, non-cigarette tobacco products are taxed 32% at the wholesale level. Nicotine products without tobacco, however, have avoided the tax to date.

The Whitmer administration estimates the new “vape tax” would generate $57 million a year in revenue, which would go toward “smoking and cancer prevention, youth mental health and physical health and access to healthcare,” Guerrant said.

Anti-tobacco and nicotine product groups have long advocated for steeper taxes on nicotine products, citing studies that have shown they lower rates of use, and in turn, damages to public health by reducing cancer rates.