South Carolina Tobacco Collaborative

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"Reducing the Toll of Tobacco Use in SC"

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Cigarette Tax

S.C. Legislature Delivers Historic Victory for Kids and Health by Approving $.50 Cigarette Tax Increase over Governor's Veto

On May 13, 2010, the South Carolina Senate overrode Governor Mark Sanford's veto (33-13) and increased South Carolina's cigarette tax for the first time in 33 years.

This new law raises the state's cigarette tax 50-cents to $.57/pack. It is a sweeping public health initiative that will impact the lives of South Carolinians for generations to come, making it likely that more than 23,000 kids under the age of 18 in South Carolina will never become smokers. Those children will grow up to be adults who never smoke. Parents who never smoke. Grandparents who never smoke. Today we are creating generations of smoke-free and tobacco-free homes for our beautiful state.

The South Carolina Tobacco Collaborative and its partners worked towards this end for ten years and applaud our legislators for delivering a historic victory.

You may think: "I don't smoke, so how does this affect me?"

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, every household in South Carolina pays a hidden tax of $578 per year to cover tobacco-related healthcare costs. That's every household in South Carolina, whether they have a smoker in their home or not. A reduction in the number of smokers means a reduction in tobacco-related healthcare costs. The tax increase will also generate a projected $235 million dollars annually to be spent on state-run healthcare programs.
In addition, the $5 million that this law will allocate each year to smoking prevention and cessation programs means that we will have a dedicated source of recurring funding to further educate more children in South Carolina about the dangers of tobacco use and have the resources to help current smokers quit. A healthier South Carolina benefits every one of her citizens.

Each year, the tobacco industry spends $280 million to market their products in South Carolina. We have won this battle, but we haven't won the war.

Each of our member organizations remains committed to our primary mission of reducing the toll of tobacco use in our state. But for today, we will pause and celebrate a victory that has been ten years in the making.

We wouldn't be here if it weren't for the leadership of the House and Senate. At the risk of forgetting any of our many champions on both sides of the aisle, we will simply say thank you to all of those public servants -- 90 House members and 33 Senators -- who stood up this week for South Carolina's kids.

Link to map showing how South Carolina compares to other states on Cigarette Tax Rates.