Raising cigarette tax makes sense

One of the key 11 ideas highlighted in the Center's tax reform book this year was to raise the cigarette tax for public health purposes.

Several Southern states have raised the tax (albeit not to the national average), but South Carolina remains mired at the bottom with the nation's lowest tax (7 cents per pack). Today, The State newspaper in Columbia again called for lawmakers to raise the cigarette tax. Read this excerpt to see why it's a no-brainer:

There’s a downside to nearly every tax: A sales tax that’s too high can send shoppers scurrying to the Internet or across state lines, hurting local merchants. An income tax that’s too high can discourage job creation.

But a higher cigarette tax pushes the cost of cigarettes out of reach for some teenagers, saving them from a lifetime of addiction that the rest of us will pay for in higher taxes and medical insurance costs. At 7 cents a pack — the nation’s lowest, 93 cents below the national average — we practically beg kids to smoke.

The deterrent effect of a higher cigarette tax is so dramatic — each 10 percent increase in the cost of cigarettes reduces youth smoking by 6.5 percent — and the cost to taxpayers to treat smoking-induced illnesses so high that our state would benefit financially even if we burned the money from a higher cigarette tax.