Raising South Carolina’s cigarette tax is a Win-Win-Win in 2010!
Next week, the South Carolina General Assembly comes back to Columbia. Let’s make this the year that they finally raise our lowest-in-the-nation cigarette tax!
Last year, the House of Representatives passed a 50 cents per-pack increase, and they sent the bill to the Senate. Now it’s the Senate’s turn to debate and pass the bill. We encourage them to consider raising the tax even higher to $1.00 per pack. We know that raising the cigarette tax to $1.00 per pack is a WIN for our kids because 44,000 youth will be prevented from starting to smoke; a WIN for our state revenues because a 93-cent increase would generate approximately $216 million in new revenue; and a WIN for our legislators because more than 74% of South Carolinians support this life-saving measure.
Take action to encourage your legislators to increase the tax and to dedicate funding for smoking prevention and cessation programs.
Wouldn't it be nice to "Breathe Eazy" in SC?
