APRIL 23, 2010 — Dear Governor Sanford,

Through the years, we haven’t seen eye to eye on much of anything political. Our visions of what government should do are just different.

In general, you prefer to limit state government’s power or control it by shifting oversight to the executive branch. In your tool belt are strategies designed to say no – tax cuts to starve programs and dizzying spin strategies to get around public institutions, such as school vouchers that would harm public schools.

On the other hand, I don’t find government to be an enemy, but a vehicle to deliver pragmatic programs to enhance the common good. Sure, there are occasional inefficiencies, but after years of cuts to state budgets, there isn’t a lot of fat hanging around fueling idle state workers.

About the only thing we’ve agreed on in the political arena is that you shouldn’t have to resign because of a marital infidelity. We both agreed that it was a personal mistake that essentially didn’t impact on the job of being governor.  We both caught a lot of flak for that position. But you’re still governor. I still write.

So while we look at the world differently, please bear with me as I make a case for why you should sign a bill to raise the cigarette tax by a half dollar per pack.

First, it’s the right thing to do for adults. Right now, about 720,000 South Carolina adults – 22.3 percent – smoke cigarettes, according to HealthySC.gov. The annual cost of health care related to smoking is about $1 billion. Because of the way the health care system functions, all South Carolinians pay for millions of dollars of treatment for South Carolinians who smoke.

Raising the cigarette tax by 50 cents will generate about $120 million in revenue that will help bring in another $360 million in federal matching monies to help defray health care increases and keep Medicaid programs going in the state. In essence, this “user fee” on smokers would generate monies to help pay down some of the high costs they generate in the health care system. More than three in four South Carolinians – you, me and other non-smokers – won’t be impacted at all immediately by a higher cigarette tax. In the long run, we may not face bigger health cost increases to cover care of smokers.

Second, it’s the right thing to do for children. If cigarettes cost more, youths might not be able to afford cigarettes and may not start smoking, which will reduce long-term costs to health care – and keep our kids healthier over time. To put it more politically, adding a fee per pack will act as a disincentive for users, which should make the population healthier over time.

Third, increasing the cigarette tax is fair. In your years as governor, there have been an estimated $2.3 billion in tax cuts in South Carolina, according to estimates made with figures from the state Board of Economic Advisers. There have been income tax cuts to get rid of a tax bracket and marriage penalty. There have been millions cut through sales tax holidays, sales tax exemptions and elimination of taxes on groceries. And more than a billion dollars has been cut from school operating expenses in a controversial, lopsided property tax swap.

Anytime there are proposals to raise taxes, the return rhetoric always insists that they be revenue neutral – that there are cuts to balance any increases. I don’t recall the opposite rhetoric in the pleas for tax cuts – that there be offsetting revenue to ensure they are revenue neutral.

On the balance sheet of your seven years in office, there are tax cuts worth $2.3 billion and tax hikes that, at best, are inconsequential. Approving a $120 million user fee that impacts a small audience isn’t going to dirty your record of overseeing what may be the largest decrease of revenue to the state in its history.

So when the legislature sends its bill to raise the cigarette tax, please consider signing it so that we can protect children, provide funding to mitigate smokers’ health costs and promote the common good.

A final note to legislators: If he vetoes the bill, please override it for all of the reasons above.

Andy Brack is publisher of StatehouseReport.com where this column first appeared.