The House voted 90 to 2911 more votes than neededto overturn the veto a day after the Republican governor rejected the bill to raise the seven-cents-per-pack tax, which has not changed since 1977.
The proposed 50-cents-per-pack increase still requires a two-thirds majority vote in the Senate to become law.
Tobacco opponents called it a historic [image-nocss] victory. "We're one step away from public health initiatives that will protect South Carolinians, keep kids from smoking, and in the long term help our state realize millions of dollars in health care savings," said Kelly Davis, spokesperson for the South Carolina Tobacco Collaborative.
The House erupted in applause after the vote, AP said, two years after sustaining Sanford's veto on a previous bill to raise the tax to 57 cents. Sanford opposes raising the cigarette tax unless some other tax is equally decreased. He called it the state's largest tax increase in a generation.
Legislators want to use nearly $125 million from the higher tax to cover the loss of federal bailout cash next year in Medicaid programs for the elderly, disabled and poor. The measure also would generate $5 million each for cancer research and efforts to curb smoking and $1 million for agriculture marketing.
Opponents argued that it would hurt businesses that sell cigarettes along the state border.
Georgia's tax is 37 cents per pack, while North Carolina's is 45 cents. The national average is $1.41 per pack.
Noting his girth and appetite for the occasional cheeseburger, Rep. Joey Millwood (R) asked whether taxing fast food would be next. "When did it become government's role to tax you so you don't do something? That's the most ludicrous, insane thing I've heard in my life," he asked. "That's called big government. We're hurting businesses. This is crazy."
But the Legislature's only doctor, Rep. Kris Crawford (R), said like it or not, government uses taxes to encourage or discourage people from doing lots of things, and he sees nothing positive in tobacco use. The emergency room doctor had advocated raising the tax by $1 to make cigarettes unaffordable for more teens.
"You don't have to pay it. You just have to not buy cigarettes. They're not a necessity," said Crawford. "I would be happiest if we went to selling tobacco in red dot stores like liquor. There are substances that are illegal that are less bad for you than tobacco."
The president of the state Association of Taxpayers said he is disappointed in legislators who had signed pledges not to increase taxes, but the budget crisis shifted attitudes. "In the past, it was easy to argue we don't need the extra revenue, but in these lean times, there was just a sea change," Don Weaver told AP.
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