The Omaha City Council has decided to subject vaping products to the city’s tobacco tax.

The council voted for the measure last Tuesday and decided to make the city’s 3% tax on tobacco products permanent. The tobacco tax was approved in 2012 to support construction of a cancer center at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

The vaping product addition could spur an estimated $1 million increase in the tobacco tax, which now raises about $3.5 million annually.

Public health advocates and others say a vaping tax could help some young people choose not to start. Local vaping retailers warned that the tax would drive more vaping purchases online and beyond the city limits.