| The S.C. Senate's approval of a 50-cent cheap cigarettes tax increase last week envisions more funding to tobacco cessation programs and more support for low-income health care. The tax also is expected to diminish cigarette consumption among thousands of young people by raising the cost of smoking. That in itself is a good argument for increasing the tax. Currently, the tax is 7 cents, the lowest in the nation, and it hasn't been raised in 20 years. Previous efforts to increase the tax have stalled in the Legislature. The House agreed to a 37 cent tax last year, but that bill stalled in the Senate. The House plan envisioned offsetting the increase in the cigarette tax with a decrease in the food tax, something that already has been accomplished in other legislation in the interim. At least now each body has agreed to raise the tax even if they may well be at odds on the use of the funds. According to a Senate spokesman, some $5 million of the estimated $159 million in new revenue would go to a smoking prevention and cessation trust fund with the remainder divided equally between a health care premium assistance program and expanding the eligibility of Medicaid. Gov. Mark Sanford has reemphasized his position that he would veto the tax increase if it isn't offset by some other tax decrease. |