If Gov. Mark Sanford and the South Carolina Legislature aren’t exactly walking down life’s path hand in hand, his State of the State address last week seemed hopeful that in days to come, those hands wouldn’t be at each other’s throats.

Several of his priorities as outlined in the speech are apparently priorities for lawmakers as well, judging by what seemed spontaneous applause when the governor spoke of strengthening DUI laws and also his “one county-one school district” preference.

And as readers may have noted in Sunday’s editorial, there are more areas in which we agree with our governor than in years past, although we also noted there are some areas in which we can only agree to disagree.

But we support his desire to nurture small business and his mention of a suggestion we made editorially some time back, to provide tax incentives for small businesses to provide health insurance coverage for their employees. And we agree as well with his belief that we are a state in transition and to compete in today’s marketplace, we have to do so in a way that connects us to the rest of the world.

“Our opportunities (in the global marketplace) are the opposite side of the same coin,” he said Wednesday. “In a global age, where you are on the globe still matters — and we have been blessed by God in our geography.” We also agree, while we differ as to how tax dollars should be used for education, with his statement that he wants “South Carolina to be a place where a great education and great health care are available to all.”

There is an area in which we both agree and disagree; it is an issue that is “the opposite side of the same coin” with some members of the legislature as well.

We support the governor’s push for a small increase in our state’s tax on tobacco, as do some members of the legislature. But Mr. Sanford wants to send those revenues back to the people, i.e., a revenue-neutral tax increase. While a tax increase might curb some smokers, the “revenue-neutral” aspect in essence lets lawmakers who signed a “no tax” pledge off the hook.

No thoughtful legislator who has the best interests of the state — instead of a re-election campaign — at heart will sign a no-tax pledge. That’s closing the door on something that may someday be necessary to provide the services citizens both want and deserve. But if they do sign one, there shouldn’t be any loopholes, nor should they want any.

But like our governor (something even he will readily admit), we digress.

Where we disagree and where some lawmakers may put up defenses is what to do with revenue generated by such an increase. As stated, Mr. Sanford wants to return that money to taxpayers, possibly as a rebate or income tax cuts. That sounds like a good idea on the surface, and there are certainly some citizens who could use the extra $100 or so they would realize. But the price we will all pay is that the $200 million estimated revenue could be used for something more important, more long-range and having an impact on more South Carolinians: health care.

According to Sen. Vincent Shaheen, D-Camden, who gave the Democratic response to the State of the State address, 850,000 of our citizens are uninsured. These are not the unemployed or the retired but what have been termed, appropriately, the working poor: They make too much to get government assistance in any form but not enough to purchase private health insurance, which can be as high as $1,000 per month, Mr. Shaheen said. To return some of the revenues from an increase in the cigarette tax for this purpose would, we believe, be acceptable. Provided, of course, that a good portion of revenues would be used to educate people, particularly the young, on the hazards of tobacco use and to provide health care and continue support of Medicaid programs. We could also go along with some of the revenues being used to aid small businesses in supplementing health care coverage for workers.

There are numerous other issues that will arise in this session, and we look forward to discussing them. But today, may we say that the governor’s tone was one of a public servant who truly wants to serve, to, as he said during lunch with some of the state’s editorial page editors and writers on Wednesday, “leave the world a little better than we found it.”

We feel more optimistic that our governor and our legislature will be able to find common ground, at least more so than during the last four years.