I have supported raising the tax on cigarettes under certain circumstances. As a health care provider, I witness daily the health problems caused by smoking. Cigarette smoking costs the taxpayers millions of dollars a year, and I know that this extra cost is unfair the non-smoking taxpayer. I also witness a tremendous amount of waste in health care, and will continue to use my experience as a pharmacist, to reform our system.
I favor raising the tax on cigarettes and coupling that tax increase with an equally valuable tax decrease on personal and or corporate income. Such action would not only depress the incidence of cigarette smoking and its related health care costs but would also ignite our anemic economy.
During the debate of H. 3584, I offered an amendment to offset the cigarette tax with a cut in the top rate of income taxes. This would cut taxes for everyone in South Carolina making over $13,000. Not only would this tax cut benefit individual returns, but most most small businesses. Among the businesses affected would be LLC’s, LLP’s, sole proprietors, S-Corps and others. Most will agree that small businesses are the economic engine of our economy. Small business tax cuts have always resulted in job creation as proven by history time and again. Unfortunately, this amendment failed. I also supported amendments cutting taxes for agriculture property, property taxes for manufacturing, residential and commercial property taxes, and finally, I supported an amendment to eliminate the capital gains tax. Unfortunately, all of these jobs creating tax cuts failed.
The final bill raised the tax on cigarettes $.50 directing $15 million to the I-95 corridor for a myriad of local projects, diverts funds for agriculture projects, and pays for smoking cessation programs. The remaining funds will be directed to a trust fund for health care. I am opposed to expanding government health care in this fashion, and there was nothing in this bill that would spur our struggling economy, therefore I voted against H. 3584. Also, I will support the suspected veto by the Governor.
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