Home > Uncategorized > Republicans vote to override Sanford, raise taxes in South Carolina

Republicans vote to override Sanford, raise taxes in South Carolina

Post on May 13, 2010 by 3 Comments »

It’s official: South Carolina’s cigarette tax will soon whiz past North Carolina’s. This is from Columbia’s The State:

The S.C. Senate today raised the cigarette tax by 50 cents a pack, ended the Palmetto State’s status as having the lowest cigarette tax in the nation. The Senate voted 33-13 to override Gov. Mark Sanford’s veto of a measure raising the tax 57 cents a pack effective July 1. The Senate vote follows Wednesday’s overwhelming House vote overriding Sanford, and was met with a round of applause in both the Senate and the State House’s packed lobby. Cigarette tax supporters saw the passage as the end of a more than 10-year journey to raise the levy on cigarettes. The tax is expected to raise $125 million in new revenue, which is supposed to be dedicated to health care for the poor in South Carolina. If the importance of the vote were in question, Orangeburg Sen. John Matthews, came into the Senate Chamber for the first time in more than a month, in a wheel chair and on a cane, to cast a vote. Matthews, the longest serving African American in the Senate, has been out with a back injury.”



 

No related posts.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

Comments (Closed):3

  1. C to the P
    May 13, 2010 at 6:09 pm

    Just another reason to vote for the DEMOCRATS in the next election. The republicans are always doing something stupid

  2. Ashley N
    May 13, 2010 at 7:23 pm

    Finally! South Carolina can begin to redeem herself. We need to keep raising the tax to protect our children from smoking and prevent people from dying from lung cancer. Furthermore, South Carolians are paying too much each year in medicaid for those who are getting sick from something that is 100% preventable. Just think of the tax as a user fee. like toll roads. It’s a Win Win Win situation.

  3. Billy
    May 14, 2010 at 8:37 pm

    I never see any mention of anyone complaining about medicaid fraud why is that? Seems as if the health care industy is only concerned with lining their pockets. A good example of this is that medical malpractice is the third leading cause of death in the US! All I ever hear about is tort reform. Might I suggest treating medical professionals like professional truck drivers? You kill some one due to you negligence you go to jail. Money might enrich survivors but it does not stop medical professionals from harming more people.
    By the way who is getting the $5,000,000.00 for cancer research? Perhaps SC does not know we have a Federal Agency called the National Cancer Institute funded by all tax paying Americans, which is only fair as not all cancer is caused by smoking. What type of research? Will it be redundant, repetitive, research that has already been done?
    Why is it that my bet will be the American Cancer Society will lay claim to it! After all they are the ones that spear headed the lobbying for the passage!
    Why should tax dollars be used to fund a so called nonprofit that we the tax payers have absolutely no control of? Do you really think the CEO of the American Cancer Society should be paid about a MILLION DOLLARS a year?
    I hope Progressive Pulse might look into where $5,000,000.00 will go in research.