An additional one percent of sales tax was tacked on to most retail purchases in North Carolina beginning Tuesday, meaning Scotland County residents are paying 7.75 cents of sales tax for every $1 of a purchase.

The General Assembly added the tax increase as part of a budget passed on Aug. 5 to help make up for a multibillion-dollar shortfall. The tax will raise about $803.5 million, according to the North Carolina Department of Revenue.

Terry Gallman, president of the LDRC and owner of Hi-Lites, says she does not support the 1 cent increase.

"I don't like it. I don't think its a good thing."

She said that it isn't affecting anyone yet, but sees potential in it hurting people.

One of Gallman's customers, Bonnie Schenck, says she agrees.

"An increase in anything is ridiculous. I think the rest of us have had to tighten our belts. Whoever the sales tax is going to needs to tighten their belts too."

Republicans and anti-tax groups in the state have said people who were laid off and scraping by will feel the impact of higher sales taxes. North Carolina’s unemployment is hovering around 11 percent.

Dallas Woodhouse, director of the state chapter of Americans for Prosperity, a conservative-leaning fiscal watchdog group, told The Associated Press that, “People are already having to pinch pennies. I don’t think there’s any doubt that they’re going to notice.”

However, some business owners don't see the penny tax hike as detrimental to their stores.

Harley Norris, owner of Harley Tuxedo and Gifts says he does not know the long-term effects of the increase, but he felt one thing was certain.

"The customers haven't even noticed.

Sandra Smith , an owner of Plaid Piper, voiced a similar view.

"I can't tell that it's made a difference at all with my customers."

Besides, she says, "I think that we need it because of the way the economy is in North Carolina."

Senate Bill 202 says the tax is temporary and will expire July 1, 2011. A “temporary” one-cent sales tax that took effect August 2001 was also meant to balance a budget shortfall and is still in effect. Cigarettes, beer, wine and liquor will have higher excise taxes.

The raise will raise Mecklenburg County’s sales tax, the highest in the state, to 8.25 percent, and will raise the sales tax in eight other counties, including Cumberland and Sampson, to 8 percent.

Gov. Beverly Perdue said during the budget negotiations — lasting more than a month after the July 1 deadline — that the tax increase was an emergency measure to make up for a $4.7 billion deficit.

Cigarette taxes will increase by 10 cents per pack to 45 cents, but legislators wouldn’t raise the tax by the extra $1 per pack that Perdue requested during budget talks. That tax increase will be on top of a $1.01 federal tax that was recently imposed.