With his first major reform measure at odds with the leadership in the General Assembly, Gov. Mark Sanford took his message of a lower income tax and higher cigarette taxes to workplaces around the state Monday.

Sanford wants to lower the state's income tax rate to 5 percent from 7 percent over the next 15 years. Lowering the rate, Sanford said, could generate more than $875 million in new economic activity for the state.

"We have a real jobs and economic development problem in South Carolina," Sanford said at the Bose Corp. plant in Blythewood after stops in Charleston and Greenville. "We have the highest income tax rate of basically any state in the Southeast."

Sanford's plan would add 53 cents a pack to the cigarette tax, up from 7 cents a pack now.

The governor would "increase the cigarette tax so we have the money to meet the (Medicaid) shortfall that exists this year," he said, "while at the same time coupling that with a substantial tax reduction."

The state's Medicaid program, which provides health care for the poor, elderly and disabled, needs $52 million more than it would receive in the budget proposed by the House, health officials said. Sanford's proposal would generate at least $150 million, according to state estimates.

Sanford's plan is at odds with those proposed by the Republican-led House and Senate.

House leaders want to refinance tobacco bonds issued in 2001. That would raise $43 million for Medicaid, they said.

A Senate subcommittee last week agreed to raise the cigarette tax, but its plan would lower the sales tax on groceries by a half cent a year for nine years. It would not lower the income tax.

Sanford, a Republican, said Monday he wants to put pressure on lawmakers to support his plan by "going out and talking straight to people themselves." If people hear his message, are convinced he's on the right track, they'll contact their legislators and urge them to back the governor's plan.

House Democrats, who support the cigarette tax increase, do not think the time is right to lower the income tax.

"We ought to look at meeting a minimum level of government and then talk about giving back some growth," said House Minority Leader James Smith, D-Richland.