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EDITORIAL: Lawmakers blow it again on raising cigarette tax 

Mired in arguments about how to spend the money, South Carolina lawmakers failed once again to raise the state's last-in-the-nation cigarette tax.

The state tax is stuck at 7 cents a pack, where it's been since 1977. The national average for states is $1.27 a pack. . . .

But while state lawmakers perennially prove their ineffectiveness on this issue, efforts elsewhere give us hope. We've seen local smoking bans spread across the state in the past three years, so much so that it's far more rare to see someone light up in public than it is to enjoy a smoke-free environment.

At the federal level, even more is happening. In April, the federal cigarette tax jumped to $1.01 a pack, up 62 cents a pack.

Now the Senate is debating legislation that would give the Food and Drug Administration authority

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