Just so you know what a real, honest-to-goodness, serious cigarette tax increase looks like, check this out:
Cigarette taxes in New York would jump by $1.60 a pack under a tentative deal reached between Gov. David A. Paterson and legislative leaders, which would give New York the nation’s highest state cigarette taxes.
The proposal, which officials said Mr. Paterson would include in an emergency budget bill due for a vote on Monday, would also raise wholesale taxes on other tobacco products like chewing tobacco, bringing the tax on those products closer in line with those of cigarettes.
In New York City, which levies steep taxes of its own on tobacco products, a pack of cigarettes would come with a tax of $5.85, making it the nation’s first city to break $5, antismoking advocates said. That would bring the overall cost of a pack of premium cigarettes above $10 in many stores in the city.
And we’ve been patting ourselves on the backs about the one big achievement of the 2010 legislative session — a whopping 50-cent increase from our lowest-in-the-nation 7-cent tax, which we had to wait about a decade for.
That means our TOTAL state cigarette tax, after our increase, is just over ONE-THIRD of the INCREASE that New York just did in one little hop. And the tax on a pack of cigarettes in New York City is MORE THAN TEN TIMES the new tax here in SC.
Yeah, I know; you have to crawl before you can walk. But still.
Mind you, I can’t really point to anything else our lawmakers tried to do this year to catch us up to the rest of the country in any regard. We just have this one tiny bit of progress. I was suitably proud of us for it. At least it meant we had done ONE of the things that was on my list of “South Carolina’s unfinished business” I wrote about when I left the paper. Sure, it was one of the two really easy ones I tacked onto the end of the column, as suggestions for something to warm up on before we really got down to work. But it was the first actual, measurable progress I had seen on anything in years — probably since Mark Sanford became governor.
So New York goes and makes our accomplishment look ridiculous. This is humiliating.
You suppose they did it on purpose? Those Yankees do like to mock us…
Related Posts
…and we’re 46th (lowest) in gasoline taxes. I’m not necessarily advocating higher taxes, but I read somewhere last week where our roads are crumbling and it will take $7 gazzilion to get them up to par. I guess my point is we can’t have it both ways.
They’ll sign a no new tax pledge, but that’s at what cost to the welfare of all the citizens.
“probably since Mark Sanford became governor.”
How many of those in the House and Senate have been here longer than Sanford?
You act like the Governor actually has some power in this state.
So only the rich can smoke? Is that what you are getting at? So how does that cigarette tax apply to cigars?
It would be so nice bring ourselves to add enough tax for smokers to notice!
Doug T., I couldn’t agree more. I wish I legislature would grow some, and tax people enough to pay for what we need, including roads. Our politicians (could wish for statesmen) need to tell people that we must pay for what we want.