Local retailers hail cigarette tax veto

Gov. Mark Sanford vetoed a bill Tuesday that would have raised the state's cigarette tax from 7 cents a pack to 57 cents, a move that was met with praise from Grand Strand smokers and tobacco sellers.

The governor says he has supported increasing the cigarette tax for seven years, but only if some other tax was cut. He says his approach is especially important as the state tries to recover from the recession. Money from the tax would fund Medicaid programs.

The cigarette fight now goes back to the legislature. The House first will decide as early as today whether to override Sanford's veto with a two-thirds vote.

Two years ago the House went along with Sanford's veto of a cigarette tax increase.

South Carolina's tax of 7 cents has been in place since 1977, when a pack cost 48 cents. The state has the lowest tax on cigarettes in the nation.

Some Grand Strand tobacco vendors applauded Sanford's efforts to stop the tax increase.

The tax, if passed, would lead more smokers to buy their cigarettes in NorthCarolina, where the state tax is 45 cents a pack, said Boris Pruger, manager of 707 Discount Tobacco on S.C. 707.

"We're based in a lot of tourists spending their money here, and once they find out there's a cheaper alternative on their way home on 95, they're going to stop there," Pruger said.

The tax will cause some to quit, he said. When the federal government raised the federal tax by 62 cents, to $1.01 a pack last year, the shop's business fell about 30 percent, he said.

Others will just continue smoking as before, he said, and the price increase kicks people who are already down from the weak economy.

"I have 15 to 20 people a week who ask if there are any jobs or am I hiring," Pruger said. "Those 15 people are going to continue to smoke."

Conway resident Erin Graham is a smoker, but says she supports the tax hike.

"I think it's a good thing, as much as I hate it for tobacco farmers and all that," she said. "The more expensive it is, the less people are going to smoke."

The bill may benefit North Carolina cigarette stores. Wayne Sowers sells cigarettes and groceries wholesale out of Lexington, N.C., and more people crossing the state line to buy cigarettes will help his business. But he said he disapproves of a tax on working class people and the way it's being handled in Columbia.

"The person that can't afford it is the one that has to pay for it," he said.

Despite his opposition, Sowers said giving one person the ability to defeat a law seems unfair and Sanford should have left the bill to the will of the legislature.

Linda Fulknier, a manager at Conway's Tobacco Market on S.C. 544, questions why she and her customers should be taxed for their bad habits while others are not.

"We have asked and asked and asked why it is continually tobacco, why not alcohol?" she said.

Smoking is not illegal, so legislators should not treat it as the ultimate social ill, she said. Sanford was right to veto the bill, she said.

Fulknier said that she supports social services and efforts to provide health care to those with low incomes.

Supporters of the tax say it will raise nearly $125 million for the state's Medicaid programs to be used beginning in July 2012 after federal bailout cash for the program runs out. It also sets aside $5 million each for cancer research and programs aimed at reducing smoking. And there's $1 million in the measure that would be used for agriculture product marketing.

Amid the recession and a slow recovery, 21 states have raised their cigarette tax since 2008, including North Carolina.

If Sanford's veto is overridden, Missouri would then have the nation's lowest tax at 17 cents a pack, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a national advocacy group that tracks cigarette taxes and trends. Rhode Island leads the nation with a $3.46 tax on each pack.

Some contend the tax will encourage people to quit smoking and reduce the number of children who start smoking.

Tobacco Market customer Amanda Pearce said a tax would probably push her to smoke less. The price for a pack has gone up already about 30 cents since she started smoking and the Conway resident said she's already considered cutting back because it's addicting, she said.

Also in the shop, Mickey Todd of Pamplico said his grandfather smoked his entire life and didn't die from it, and he plans to continue smoking regardless of the tax.

"I'm opposed [to the tax] because if you're going to smoke, you're going to smoke," he said. "I think taxes are high enough."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.