Harrell Seeks Tax Hike Sponsors

S.C. House Speaker Bobby Harrell is aggressively courting co-sponsors for his proposed 50-cent increase in South Carolina’s cigarette tax, which is scheduled to be unveiled later this week.

The feds have already jacked the cigarette tax rate by 62 cents this year, which Democrats in Congress hope will be enough to pay for a $25 billion expansion of a so-called children’s health insurance program that actually cannibalizes the private sector at a 40-50% clip while also providing health care to illegal aliens … adult illegal aliens.

For more on that boondoggle, click here.

For more on South Carolina’s utter inability to manage tobacco revenue, click here.

Harrell has taken boatloads of cash from cigarette companies in the past, which is one reason he helped sustain Gov. Mark Sanford’s veto of this same cigarette tax increase last year.

It’s unknown how much he’s taken from health care concerns, but Blue Cross Blue Shield has spent tens of thousands of dollars on campaign contributions to state lawmakers over the last few months, with a huge influx of checks arriving in lawmakers’ campaign accounts on November 4, the date of the last election.

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