Sadly, South Carolina will retain the regrettable distinction of having the lowest cigarette tax in the nation - just seven cents a pack. A bill to boost the tax to 39 cents a pack to bring the Palmetto State more into line with other states was recently snuffed out in the House Ways and Means Committee. Shame on that panel.
Even so, there is still one important smoking reform that has a chance to get through the legislature - a bill to ban smoking in restaurants, bars and indoor recreational facilities. With the House Judiciary Committee approving the ban on a 10-8 vote, the measure has advanced further than it ever has before - to the House floor for a full debate set for this week.
This should be a no-brainer. The smoke ban argument is usually cast as a freedom-of-choice issue: Let the bars and restaurants choose whether they want to allow smoking or not, and consumers choose whether they want to patronize smoke-ban establishments or not.
But it's not a choice issue - it's a health issue. If secondhand smoke doesn't kill, it certainly makes a lot of people sick. And it can ruin a dining experience for many people, including children. That shouldn't be allowed. Nobody should have the right to poison the air for the people around them.
Moreover, studies show that, though smoking bans sometimes decrease dining or bar businesses temporarily, over the longer term they show an increase in business. Georgia prohibits smoking in all indoor establishments that allow children, and business hasn't slowed in this state.
It's time for South Carolina to climb aboard, but the House must act fast - by May 1, the crossover deadline, after which a two-thirds vote is necessary before one legislative body can accept legislation from the other body. The bill has a reasonable chance of passage, but not by a two-thirds margin.
The vote will be tight in both the House and Senate, yet it doesn't matter how big the victory is - one vote margins are enough to make the smoke ban law. South Carolina needs to shake its reputation as Big Tobacco's best friend.
