Mark Sanford to Veto Cigarette Tax Increase; Largest in a Generation

Mark Sanford said he wouldveto the cigarette tax increase recently passed by the General Assembly because it would amount to a whopping $ 1.3 billion increase. Assembly leaders now have to muster a 2/3 vote in each chamber to override the governor's veto. asimilar effort failed a few yearsago.

For whatever embarrassment Sanford has caused the state with his moral failings and peculiar biblical justifications he does look out for the South Carolina tax payer and the tobacco industry, for which South Carolina is the nation’s third largest producer.

Chalk up the cigarette tax increase plan to an out of touch General Assembly that has forgotten it is impossible to tax your way back to prosperity. Tax increases on a product compel people to buy less of that product. With revenue in general down because of the national recession and the unemployment rate holding steady at over 12%, what is the wisdom in further damaging a major industry in the state, particularly since doing so will cause further job losses?

All this in order to make up for a budget shortfall of their own doing. Rather than trim wasteful spending, they would rather have a new source of revenue to squander. Double shame both house of the General Assembly are controlled by supposedly fiscally conservative Republicans.