South Carolina Group Protests Tax Increase on Smokes

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- A South Carolina anti-tax group urged state legislators to reject any proposal to raise the state cigarette tax -- currently the nation's lowest at 7 cents a pack, reported the Associated Press.

Lawmakers have discussed raising the cigarette tax to pay for Medicaid programs. So far this session, no bill has been introduced to do so, according to AP

Don Weaver, president of the South Carolina Association of Taxpayers, said in the report his group wanted to make their position known before anything is proposed.

Weaver said a higher cigarette tax would be a regressive tax against the state's poor. He also believes North Carolina's recent increase in cigarette taxes will give South Carolina convenience stores along the state's border a boost in cigarette and gasoline sales, according to AP.
North Carolina's cigarette tax increased from 5 cents a pack to 30 cents last September. It will rise again to 35 cents in July. The national average is 92 cents per pack.

Officials in other states have said South Carolina's lowest-in-the-nation tax makes it a popular state for bootleggers who buy cigarettes cheap and sell them by the truckload in high-tax states, AP reported.