Tax reform has been a big topic for your paper and politicians. So far, the so-called main proposals, and what has actually been enacted, are breaks for people of higher incomes, which make our already-regressive tax system worse.

It’s time to be bold and creative, to put reality ahead of pick-and-choose morality and to enact true tax reform that injects more fairness yet provides revenue sources to help pull South Carolina from its multiple low-ranking morass.

Here’s how:

• Gov. Mark Sanford’s proposed income tax cut makes an already-regressive tax even more so. Instead of knocking off the top-bracket rates as he proposes, simply increase the personal exemption of every income taxpayer to a level that will bring in the same amount of revenues as the governor’s proposed cut.

• The Quinn-Sheheen sales tax proposal would penalize the working poor and proportionately aid the well-off. Instead of increasing the sales tax rate, we should hold it steady. We should remove the bizarre list of sales tax exemptions and start from scratch with a new list based on what could be classified as life necessities, including food and education supplies.

• Another big break for the wealthy is the reduction of the personal property ratio, mainly cars. Yes, we had some of the highest personal property tax rates, but so what?

South Carolina was doing something right. The main beneficiaries of this tax cut are wealthy people with gas-guzzling, asphalt-crunching SUVs and luxury cars. People who drive fuel-efficient four-cylinder cars had modest tax bills, even before the Legislature mandated a reduction and further strangled one of local government’s fairest sources of revenues, shifting more pressure to real property taxes. Set the car tax ratio back to a neat and even 10 percent (still a slight decrease from the previous level).

• Exempt the first $100,000 of value of an owner-occupied home for school tax purposes and live up to the commitment to reimburse school districts for the lost revenue. Forget a scheme to put a cap on reassessment increases; that’s patently unfair to other taxpayers.

• To charge sales tax on just the first $6,000 of a car sale is an upside-down travesty of tax justice. Instead of taxing the first $6,000 of a sale, we should exempt the first $6,000 and tax the remainder. Under the new right-side-up tax, anybody who pays less than $12,000 for a car would get a tax break.

• Double or even triple the tax on beer, wine and liquor. Beer is so cheap that a person can buy enough to get high each day for a week for less than the cost of a sober couple’s single night out for dinner and a movie.

• Enact a 50-cent-per-pack tax on cigarettes, as proposed. It is almost sinful not to use this tax source, as evidence continues to mount on the many ways smoking is killing us.

• Put a 10-cent tax on every 12-ounce equivalent of soda. Sugar-laden soft drinks are a great tax source on a cheap product that is fattening up another generation of people for obesity and diabetes.

• Increase the gasoline tax by 2 cents a gallon. At current gas prices, few people would notice. All you need do is look around at big cars driving super speeds to know high prices aren’t slowing down or parking anybody.

Earmark the proceeds this way: 1 cent for highway maintenance, 1 cent for safety and enforcement, including hiring new troopers and instructing them to go out and stop the speeders who have turned our highways into unimpeded race tracks.

In a related move, declare the whole state and each political subdivision a “speed trap.” A police chief told me that his town council instructed him to cut back on radar stops so the town won’t get a reputation as a speed trap. What an absurd attitude. Are we saying avoid speed limit enforcement even as people are dying in increasing numbers on our roads?

• Bring back video poker and allow tightly regulated, highly taxed resort casinos. For the church lobbyists who somehow think gambling is too cruel and sinful to legalize, think about this: Far more peoples’ lives are being ruined at this very moment by the liquid curse of alcohol and the lung-blackening scourge of tobacco smoke than would be ruined by gambling for as long it lasts in this state.

• Do away with all Sunday sales restrictions and give tourism and commerce still another boost. Let people buy and sell based on their consciences.

• One of the great political scare campaigns of the past 30 years is the battle to keep low-level nuclear waste out of our state. The dump used for this waste is safer than many local garbage landfills. We should declare that we’ll take the nation’s low-level waste and, once we have a monopoly, tax it for all that traffic will bear.

This plan is designed mainly to reward taxpayers, rich and poor, who live modestly, spend wisely and choose healthy lifestyles.

On the spending side, one strong investment would seem obvious, pegged in part to the new revenue sources and South Carolina’s dismal state of health and well-being. We should fund the nation’s best education, prevention and treatment efforts to help people — from infants on up — deal with drugs, alcohol, tobacco, gambling, overeating and lack of physical activity.

Mr. Surratt, a former staff writer at The State, is a retiree living in Lexington County.