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Lawmakers again miss chance to do right with smoking bills

Another session goes by with no cigarette tax increase

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State lawmakers have showed once again that they can't do right by South Carolinians when it comes to smoking.

In a close vote Wednesday, House members sent back to committee a bill that would ban smoking inside establishments that serve food and alcohol.

Last week, the House Ways and Means Committee voted down plans to raise the state cigarette tax, essentially killing the idea for the year.

We came tantalizingly close to seeing the smoking ban move forward. The vote was 55- 52 to send it back to committee. A similar vote earlier in the day failed. Rep. Bill Herberkersman voted against sending back the bill. Rep. Richard Chalk was not recorded in the House Journal as voting.

Members of the House Ways and Means Committee on April 19 voted 13-8 against two bills that would push the state's lowest-in-the-nation cigarette tax higher. One would have used the estimated $100 million raised to pay for health insurance initiatives; the other would have cut income taxes by the same amount.

Here's how far we still need to go to overcome strong tobacco lobbying and some legislators' no-taxes blinders. Rep. Todd Rutherford, D-Richland, the smoking ban's sponsor, summed up the defeat this way:

"Still, it's a great day when we can get a bill banning smoking this far in South Carolina."

Isn't it past time to do better than that?

The Associated Press reports that the House Ways and Means vote to kill efforts to raise the state's cigarette tax from its paltry 7 cents a pack wasn't surprising. The committee routinely has killed plans to increase cigarette taxes that have come up during budget debates in recent years. And eight of the 13 committee members voting to kill the bills previously have signed Americans for Tax Reform pledges not to increase taxes.

Renee Martin, executive director of the South Carolina Tobacco Collaborative, said in a prepared statement that the Ways and Means Committee missed an opportunity to reduce smoking among children, a key goal of her group.

"By failing to pass these bills, the ... committee has voted to stand with Big Tobacco instead of South Carolina's kids and families," Martin said.

Somebody should tell these legislators to take off the blinders and join us in the 21st century.