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Well, those senators lost a battle this week against the Columbia tax and spend crowd who want to funnel tax dollar earmarks into the Vote Trading Shell game. The shell game is an effort to earmark millions of dollars into “to be determined district projects” of certain Senators along the I-95 corridor at the expense of other communities throughout our state.

The Vote Trading shell game is a cynical effort to earmark funds from the tobacco settlement which SC received to pay for health care costs to get the support of Senators to raise the tobacco tax by 900%. The tax and spenders understand they will encounter serious opposition from fiscal conservatives in the House and that a pork laden bill cannot pass. So, the I-95 pork projects have been shifted over to be paid for with tobacco settlement dollars which were intended to compensate for healthcare costs– that is where the vote trading shell game stands today.

While raising the tobacco tax may be popular with some, this shell game to garner tax increase votes and make Medicaid dependent on this shrinking revenue source is setting the stage for an economic crisis in our state. As Medicaid grows, and tobacco taxes are raised, the revenue gap will increase substantially every year. This gap will cause Senators to have to vote for general tax increases to pay for the Obama Healthcare disaster that some simply call “increased Medicaid costs”. And, when they get away with this, they will be back for a gas tax increase next. After that, maybe our property tax relief will be on the chopping block.

To make things worse, the Senate raised the tax by 50 cents, putting our SC merchants at a tremendous competitive disadvantage to our neighboring states.

The debate now moves to the House and they have a chance to delete the Senate’s shell game spending and keep the tobacco tax at a level that does not harm South Carolina’s taxpayers. Please let your House member know how you feel about this Vote trading Shell game. By promising earmarks for select Senators, all of South Carolina loses. By funding the Obama Healthcare bailout, we will all be forced to pay higher taxes. Your House member needs to know how you feel about the impact tax increases will have on your pocketbook.

In Protection of the Taxpayer.

Don Weaver
President
SC Association of Taxpayers