Freshman Democratic Rep. Michael Wray lives in a county that’s light on tobacco farming, Northampton, but he has a grasp on the importance of the golden leaf in Vance County.
Wray said Wednesday that he has fielded a request from his home county to co-sponsor legislation that would raise the cigarette tax by 75 cents per pack, with the proceeds going toward soaring Medicaid expenses.
“I had to tell him no,” Wray said in his office. He said he can’t support a tobacco tax increase of 75 cents a pack or even 45 cents. “I might could support 20 cents.”
The holdup is Vance County. Wray said he’s determined to look out for the county’s tobacco growers, and that means resisting taxes that could cut the demand for Vance leaf by cutting the overall use of tobacco products.
North Carolina has one of the two lowest cigarette taxes in the nation at 5 cents per pack, and Gov. Mike Easley has proposed raising the tax by 45 cents over two years. A statewide poll from Elon University showed 59 percent support for the plan.
The cigarette tax plan has received criticism from at least two sides.
Health advocates argue that the tax increase is too small and too slow, so that it wouldn’t have the desired shock value and deter young smokers.
Cigarette manufacturers, for their part, aren’t thrilled with seeing the state budget balanced with a move against their still-legal product. Greensboro-based Lorillard, for example, issued a statement in February from Steve Watson, its vice president for external affairs: “It is unfortunate that Governor Easley has looked to balance the state’s budget on the backs of smokers — many of whom can ill afford to pay the astronomical increase.”
On another tax matter of interest to Vance County, Wray said he and Rep. Jin Crawford, D-Oxford, were prepared Wednesday to introduce legislation that would allow the county to enact a 1-cent local sales tax by referendum for the purpose of financing school construction. That tax would raise an estimated $3 million per year.
Wray said it is still possible that Vance’s proposal will be added to similar legislation from Pitt County rather than advancing as stand-alone legislation. He said he has told school and county officials in Vance that the lottery bill the House passed would provide hundreds of millions of dollars for school construction statewide, but the county wants to push ahead.
“I have to do what the people want,” he said.
Wray said he also is talking to Henderson-Vance County Chamber of Commerce President Bill Edwards about the sales tax because it’s a big business issue.
“You can’t buy a shirt in Warren County,” Wray said, explaining how Henderson serves as a regional retail hub.