A slow-burning movement to raise South Carolina’s lowest-in-the nation cigarette tax, an effort that’s been smoldering for a decade now, might finally see its cherry glowing red hot in the near future.

S.C. House Speaker Bobby Harrell, R-Charleston, recently introduced legislation to raise the tax from 7 cents per pack to 57 cents. The national average is more than $1. Harrell says he modeled his bill after a similar plan in Oklahoma to lure matching federal funds to expand health care coverage for the uninsured.

Last year, the General Assembly passed legislation to increase the Palmetto State’s tax by 50 cents. But Gov. Mark Sanford vetoed the bill saying he didn’t want to expand the state’s Medicaid program.

Harrell spokesman Greg Foster says it’s too early to talk about whether the Legislature would have enough votes to override Sanford if he reaches for the veto pen again. But it appears there is at least legislation on the table that both Republicans and Democrats can agree on, and maybe even the governor, who has long said he’d only support raising the tax in a revenue neutral manner.

“The way this is drafted up, it is tax revenue neutral, so it should hold up to some of the markers [Sanford] has put forward in what he would like to see in a cigarette tax plan,” Foster says. “I’m confident [the speaker’s bill] will come to the floor and we will debate the plan as it stands.”

So what’s making this year different when it comes to those who believe that at least some kind of cigarette tax increase is going to pass? One organization says it’s because this time the momentum behind getting something moving is coming from the top.

“One of the things that we’ve really been missing in South Carolina that a lot of other states have been able to accomplish is real legislative leadership on this issue,” says Kelly Davis, spokeswoman for the South Carolina Tobacco Collaborative. “We’ve had some really terrific champions in both the House and the Senate over the past several years, but ultimately the top leadership has not been supportive. And I think that the whole turning point is that this year the speaker of the house has publicly made a commitment to getting a cigarette tax [increase] passed.”

The Tobacco Collaborative is a coalition of public health advocates, businesses and individuals who have been working to reduce tobacco use in South Carolina, and pushing for a tax hike on a pack of smokes, for nine years.

“The reason why this is an important issue to us is that there are over 100 independent studies that have shown that raising the price of cigarettes is the most effective way of keeping kids from smoking,” Davis says.

And the higher the tax, the more lives would be saved, especially if some of the revenue is used to fund tobacco prevention programs, she says, adding that South Carolina spends no state dollars on tobacco prevention.