By Dennis Quick
Senior Staff Writer

During a Jan. 31 health care panel discussion in Columbia hosted by the South Carolina Association of Nonprofit Organizations, three gubernatorial candidates, the fourth, Gov. Mark Sanford, was absent, agreed it was time the state raised its cigarette tax to help fund health insurance for some 850,000 low-income South Carolinians who lack it.

Amen to that.

None of the three candidates—state Sen. Tommy Moore, D-Clearwater; Newberry County family physician Dr. Oscar Lovelace, a Republican; and Florence Mayor Frank Willis, a Democrat—said how much our ludicrously low 7 cent cigarette tax should be raised. (Naturally, ours is the lowest cigarette tax in the nation. Missouri’s comes in second at 17 cents a pack. The national average is 92 cents.)

House Democrats have estimated that raising the tax 30 cents, putting us on par with Georgia at 37 cents per pack, would generate $100 million in revenue. Throw federal matching funds on top of that and Democrats say we would have $300 million that could go toward health insurance for children, low-income workers and employees of small businesses.

In November, Lovelace proposed we raise the cigarette tax to the national average—a move that, along with federal matching funds, would produce for the state nearly $1 billion for health care and educational needs, he claimed.

I say state lawmakers should raise the cigarette tax to whatever amount we need to help provide the needed health care.

Yes, Big Tobacco casts a daunting shadow in the Palmetto State. But so does the absence of health care, the lack of which stunts our economic development.

At the panel discussion, Lovelace said common sense demands we raise the cigarette tax if we care about health care.

He’s right. It’s a matter not only of common sense, but also of public service.

We’re staring down the barrel of a health care crisis with too many working South Carolinians unable to afford health insurance, too many children unable to be tended by a primary family doctor, too few nurses, too few dollars to inject into nursing programs so we can produce more nurses, too many graying baby boomers who will need more health care and too many graying retirees who are moving here and will need the same.

Opponents to raising the cigarette tax have argued that an elevated tax would send smokers scurrying across the state’s borders to purchase cigarettes, reducing our tobacco revenues. But with Georgia’s cigarette tax at 37 cents and North Carolina’s slated to reach 35 cents this summer, where would South Carolina smokers go if our cigarette tax became comparable with our neighbors’?

Besides, when Georgia raised its cigarette tax in 2003, nicotine-addicted Georgians didn’t flee the state for cheaper cigarettes, and tobacco revenues actually rose from $111 million in 2003 to $227 million in 2004.

Considering the shape we’re in health care-wise, we can’t afford not to raise our shamefully meager cigarette tax.

I applaud the three gubernatorial candidates for having the guts to say we should raise the tax. Proposing any kind of tax hike during an election year usually spells political suicide.

And if I wore a hat, I’d tip it to SCANPO and to the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce for stirring up health care discussions across the state.

PUBLICIZED PROGRESS. In late January, Atlanta-based Holder Properties began issuing to brokers, prospects and the media the first of a series of monthly progress reports on Ashley Overlook, the 105,800-square-foot office building Holder Properties is erecting near Faber Place Executive Park in North Charleston.

Holder Properties is issuing these reports because it wants to ensure all concerned that the project is real, that it is happening, that it is not all talk.

“We’re finding out that this is a ‘see- before-you-buy town,’” said Holder Properties Associate Vice President Jeff Mixson about the metro Charleston-North Charleston area.

Ashley Overlook’s steel frame is already erected; you can see it from Interstate 526. To those considering leasing office space there, the sight must be reassuring.

That’s why progress reports on construction projects are a good idea. They not only cement a builder’s or developer’s credibility, but they’re also a good marketing strategy.

Dennis Quick is the senior staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dquick@charlestonbusiness.com.

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