The Senate Minority Leader in South Carolina stopped a tax bill wanting to raise cigarette taxes in order to assist uninsured citizens gain health coverage.
South Carolina currently has a cigarette tax of 7 cents per pack, a national low. The bill would have increased the state’s tax to 50 cents per pack, which would have generated $145 million in annual revenue. The national average for cigarette taxes is $1.23 per pack.
This would’ve allowed a maximum of $3000 for individual health insurance plans to help uninsured citizens who earn less than $21,600. Also, small employers could’ve participated by receiving a 67% tax credit if they gave their employees the $3000.
The bill was successfully argued against by Senate Minority Leader John Land. Land claimed that the money could be better spent by going directly into the state’s Medicaid program.
Land said he thought the bill was one of the silliest things he’d seen during his time in South Carolina politics, and that he would not vote for it under any circumstances.
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