PIERRE, S.D. -- Smokers in southeastern South Dakota are organizing buying groups to get cheaper cigarettes in Nebraska and Iowa, state Representative Garry Moore (D) told a legislative committee Monday morning, according to The Rapid City Journal.
Moore said South Dakota's $1 a pack increase in the cigarette tax was hurting small businesses in his district. He argued to cut the tax by 78 cents, but the House State Affairs Committee voted 12 to 1 to kill the proposal without a vote of the full House, said the report.
Voters in [image-nocss] November approved increasing the state's cigarette tax from 53 cents a pack to $1.53 a pack. Moore's bill would have reduced the tax to 75 cents a pack.
This is not selfish in nature, Moore, who works for a company that wholesales cigarettes, told the newspaper. I know there are people who've said it's selfish in nature, and I really don't care.... I don't ever apologize for representing my constituents and the small-business people of South Dakota.
Jennifer Stalley, a lobbyist for the American Cancer Society, called the bill an assault on the intention of the voters.
Custer High School principal Larry Luijtens, who was co-chairman of the campaign for the new tax, said higher cigarette prices already were having the intended effect. I've had four kids in the last two weeks say to me: Mr. Luitjens, I've quit smoking. It was whether I was going to smoke or drive my car, and I'd rather drive my car'.
Even committee members who opposed the $1 a pack tax hike last fall rejected it. We were in the minority, state Rep. Larry Rhoden (R) told Moore.
By law, $5 million of the new tobacco tax goes to prevention programs, but the tax is projected to raise much more than that, the report said. Republican lawmakers have proposed that for each of the next five years the extra tobacco-tax money will be added to education, health care and property-tax relief. That means $9 million a year for education, $9 million for health care and $9 million for property-tax relief, according to state projections on tax collections.
The bill voters approved, however, would have sent money for education and health care to two existing trust funds, and spending the principal from those funds requires a three-fourths majority of the Legislature. The plan the committee recommended Monday would send tobacco money for education and health care directly to the general fund, where it could be spent by a simple majority vote, said the report.
The new spending mechanism is in two bills, which now go to a vote of the House.
Rhoden, who had argued that legislators shouldn't overrule voters by reducing the cigarette tax, said changing the way the money is handled would better accomplish what voters intended. I think we're demonstrating good government, Rhoden told the paper.
But not all legislators think the extra $1 a pack tax on cigarettes is good government. I submit to you we have passed an outrageous tax in the cigarette tax, state Senator Jerry Apa (R) said on the Senate floor during a debate about a related bill, the Journal said.
Senate Bill 42 would reduce the percentage cigarette wholesalers get for affixing tax stamps. State Senate Republican Leader Dave Knudson said the reduction in the percentage was to offset a windfall because of the $1-a-pack tax hike. There is no doubt in my mind that the citizens of South Dakota did not intend to put an extra million bucks in the hands of the tobacco distributors, Knudson said.
Apa disagreed. This is about greed, he said. Government greed.
State Sen. Bill Napoli (R) also voted against the reduction, saying cigarette sellers deserved the additional money because they were facing new risks. A semi-load of cigarettes is worth over a million dollars today, he said. It'll be better to take the cigarettes than it will be to take the money out of the cash register. We are putting many of these people who work at these convenience stores in harm's way.
The bill, however, passed 31 to 3, the report said. Now it goes to the state House.
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