Orange County’s freshman representative said he simply couldn’t vote in favor of the state budget when it passed earlier this month, even though it was already a month and a half overdue.
Rep. Bill Faison’s rejection of the budget signed Aug. 16 boiled down to one provision, a 25-cent hike of the nation’s lowest cigarette tax.
North Carolina’s cigarette tax will jump from 5 cents per pack to 30 cents on Thursday and to 35 cents on July 1.
Faison, a Democrat representing Caswell County and parts of northern Orange County, said a lot of tobacco farmers are still struggling.
He said it was a no-brainer to vote against the budget and preserve his credibility in the face of tobacco-growing constituents to whom he had promised a fight against a higher cigarette tax.
“It was my belief that they just needed some more time to find other markets and other ways to support their families,” he said. “I looked them in the eyes, and I said I wouldn’t support a cigarette tax.”
But without a spot on the budget conference committee, which ultimately proposed the adopted budget, the freshman representative had little sway over cigarette tax supporters.
Orange County Commissioner Barry Jacobs, who lost the district primary for the House seat to Faison last year, said Faison did not help his constituents by voting against the budget.
“He just voted ‘no,’ which left him without any position to bargain,” Jacobs said. “You can see that the political tide had changed, and the cigarette tax was going to pass.”
