Cigarette Tax Hike Dead For the Year?

South Carolina's regular legislative session ended yesterday with no agreement on how much to increase the state's cigarette tax-- which means there will likely be no hike at all this year. In the end, what killed the proposal was the state's short-term projected budget surplus:

Raising taxes with a surplus "is simply wrong," said Sen. Larry Grooms, R-Berkeley. "When we were told 'we have the votes to go around you,' we dug in."

Of course, legitimate questions can be asked about how long that budget surplus will stick around. And for some folks, the point of a cigarette tax hike isn't to raise revenue anyway.

Our hope for next year: if lawmakers are going to decide more money needs to be allocated to health care, they should come up with a revenue source that will grow a little faster-- as virtually any other tax hike would.