After several years of trying to raise the state’s cellar-dwelling tax on cigarettes, South Carolina lawmakers have come up with yet another proposal.

The House Ways and Means Committee has proposed a hike of 30 cents a pack to be used for

Medicaid funding. That would bring us up to Georgia’s 37 cents a pack, but well below the national average of $1.34 a pack. The increase is expected to bring in about $88 million.

It’s also far below the 50 cents a pack the House approved last year, and the 40 cents a pack approved by the House and Senate in 2008, but vetoed by Gov. Mark Sanford.

The 50-cents-a-pack increase was expected to raise about $145 million, and significantly, included $5 million a year for anti-smoking and cessation programs. But the full Senate failed to act on it before the session ended last June.

Sanford continues to oppose any increase of our 7 cents a pack tax unless there is a corresponding tax cut elsewhere. He reiterated that stance in his State of the State address in January. Last year’s 97-22 victory in the House delivered a veto-proof margin, making the Senate’s inaction all the more frustrating.

Why the Ways and Means Committee settled for 30 cents a pack is puzzling, particularly considering that House members voted Monday to add $173.6 million in federal money to the state budget to restore proposed cuts to health care services. Congress has yet to give final approval to the funding, but House lawmakers say they are confident the money will come to South Carolina.

State Rep. Dan Cooper, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, called it a “contingency plan.”

This reliance on federal money seems at odds with a resolution given final approval last week that asserts state’s rights under the 9th and 10th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution. The resolution particularly objects to the federal government’s expanding reach “into the lives of our citizens” and its stepping into the realm of regulating medical care and standards. That resolution took up lawmakers’ time in two legislative sessions.

Lawmakers could assert a little financial independence by approving a significant hike in our cigarette tax and using the money for health care funding.

source: islandpacket.com

Similar Posts:

• House approves cigarette tax increase
• Sanford to announce cigarette tax decision
• No consensus in Legislature on tobacco tax
• Opinions divided over cigarette tax increase
• Legislature debates tobacco tax hike