Tim Brett and Jim Morton: Make a cigarette tax increase happen
In case you don't receive the Greenville News, we are publishing below a Brett Op-Ed piece that ran on Friday, August 28, regarding the cigarette tax issue in South Carolina. Read the article at the Greenville News web site here.
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Make a cigarette tax increase happen
For the past nine years, legislation to increase the state cigarette tax has come before the South Carolina General Assembly that would financially boost Medicaid by providing health-care coverage for many of our state's poorest residents and also pay for smoking prevention programs. And for the past nine years, that legislation has failed to become law.
Make a cigarette tax increase happen
For the past nine years, legislation to increase the state cigarette tax has come before the South Carolina General Assembly that would financially boost Medicaid by providing health-care coverage for many of our state's poorest residents and also pay for smoking prevention programs. And for the past nine years, that legislation has failed to become law.
It would seem reasonable to assume that a bill which would be so valuable to our state's health should be a legislative no-brainer. Not only would disadvantaged South Carolinians get health-care coverage, but smokers would hopefully be encouraged to give up the habit, and others would be dissuaded from ever starting. But year after year, a number of bumps in the road continue to prevent our state's neediest citizens from getting the Medicaid assistance many of them literally cannot live without.
In 2008 it appeared South Carolina would join the legion of other states, as well as the District of Columbia, that have increased cigarette taxes. The House and Senate passed legislation to increase the then 7-cent tax to a reasonable 50-cent tax, which would still be the lowest rate of taxation on cigarettes in the nation, only to have the bill vetoed by Gov. Mark Sanford, who held tight to his no-new-taxes stance.
During this year's legislative session, cigarette tax bills once again came to the floor of both chambers and once again were not passed, this time due to a battle over different versions. The House version would have offered maximum tax credits of $3,000 to people making up to $21,000 annually.
The Senate version of the legislation argued that the House plan would only create unnecessary bureaucratic and overhead costs by distributing the money on an individual basis. The Senate's alternative lobbied instead for the tax money to go straight into expansion of Medicaid programs, which would additionally have procured the state $3 in matching federal funds for every Medicaid dollar spent. At the close of the 2009 South Carolina legislative session, the battle over the expenditure of the proceeds was still undecided, shutting the door once again on a new state cigarette tax.
According to a recent Families USA research study, 670 people a week lose their health-care coverage in South Carolina. Yet we still have the lowest cigarette tax of any state in the nation and rank last among states in funding smoking prevention programs.
Our House and Senate seem to have reached a general consensus that it's time to raise the cigarette tax, because the issue continues to come up year after year. Now it's just a matter of untangling the web of disagreement between members of the General Assembly and the governor so we can get the job done in 2010.
Call or write your legislator and let them know your thoughts on the cigarette tax bill. To find your legislator, visit http://www.scstatehouse.gov/ and click “Find Your Legislator” in the left-hand column.
In 2008 it appeared South Carolina would join the legion of other states, as well as the District of Columbia, that have increased cigarette taxes. The House and Senate passed legislation to increase the then 7-cent tax to a reasonable 50-cent tax, which would still be the lowest rate of taxation on cigarettes in the nation, only to have the bill vetoed by Gov. Mark Sanford, who held tight to his no-new-taxes stance.
During this year's legislative session, cigarette tax bills once again came to the floor of both chambers and once again were not passed, this time due to a battle over different versions. The House version would have offered maximum tax credits of $3,000 to people making up to $21,000 annually.
The Senate version of the legislation argued that the House plan would only create unnecessary bureaucratic and overhead costs by distributing the money on an individual basis. The Senate's alternative lobbied instead for the tax money to go straight into expansion of Medicaid programs, which would additionally have procured the state $3 in matching federal funds for every Medicaid dollar spent. At the close of the 2009 South Carolina legislative session, the battle over the expenditure of the proceeds was still undecided, shutting the door once again on a new state cigarette tax.
According to a recent Families USA research study, 670 people a week lose their health-care coverage in South Carolina. Yet we still have the lowest cigarette tax of any state in the nation and rank last among states in funding smoking prevention programs.
Our House and Senate seem to have reached a general consensus that it's time to raise the cigarette tax, because the issue continues to come up year after year. Now it's just a matter of untangling the web of disagreement between members of the General Assembly and the governor so we can get the job done in 2010.
Call or write your legislator and let them know your thoughts on the cigarette tax bill. To find your legislator, visit http://www.scstatehouse.gov/ and click “Find Your Legislator” in the left-hand column.
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