TAXPAYER REBATES IN ACTION
Taxpayers in Indiana are getting a credit toward their income tax returns as a result of a rebate bill pushed last year by Gov. Mitch Daniels. According to the terms of Daniels’ rebate legislation, married couples filing jointing in the Hoosier State will get an extra $222 next year.
All told, that’s $360 million that will flow back into the state’s economy – not additional government growth.
Granted this is a small step, as Indiana finished its most recent fiscal year (ending in June) with $2.1 billion in reserves. That total eclipsed 10 percent of the state’s annual budget – which triggered the rebates. In future years, reserves will have to reach a 12.5 percent threshold before any money is rebated.
Here in South Carolina, State Sen. Tom Davis (R-Beaufort) has been pushing for the last two years to create a taxpayer rebate fund that sends a portion of surplus money – and government “savings” – back to the people. Unfortunately, his efforts have been blocked by liberal “Republicans” in the State Senate.
Davis’ taxpayer rebate fund was defeated by a 24-18 vote earlier this year, with “Republican” Senators Thomas Alexander, Paul Campbell, Wes Hayes, Jakie Knotts, Hugh Leatherman, Larry Martin, Luke Rankin and Greg Ryberg voting against it. In 2011, a similar amendment sponsored by Davis was rejected by a 23-17 margin – with Alexander, Campbell, Hayes, Leatherman, Martin and Sen. Billy O’Dell voting against it.
Over the last two years South Carolina lawmakers have blown through $3 billion in new money – with S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley approving more than 99 percent of that new spending. Haley has yet to state her support for the taxpayer rebate fund, by the way.
“I’m offering my amendment up again next year and I hope Governor Haley will exert her influence on the process because this is a very concrete way to do what she says she wants to do: Give money back,” Davis told FITS in September.
He’s right …
For years there has been a debate between fiscal liberals (including the vast majority of South Carolina’s “Republican” elected officials) and reformers over whether government growth translates into better results for our state.
The answer? It doesn’t.
By spending literally every penny of new money that flowed into state government these past two years – and rejecting efforts to pump at least a portion of that money back into our economy – Haley and her “Republican” legislative allies have squandered a golden opportunity to make our state more competitive.
Not only should South Carolina follow Indiana’s lead, it should be much more aggressive in returning surplus funds and so-called “savings” back to the people who earned that money in the first place.
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10 comments
Hoosier daddy, hoosier daddy? Um, like maybe hair-lip Tom Justanothercarpetbaggerlikesanford Davis?
Indiana is not a good comparison to South Carolina. Indiana has a gaming commission and 12 casinos for revenue. South Carolina gets a windfall from powerball sales. Your point is that there is money to give back…? Where?
How about the Lexington indictments promised by Halloween?
What about the Richland County election fraud?
How about any coverage on draft bills being introduced now before the GA convenes?
How about some coverage on the public hearings by GA committees that have been going on for the last few months?
How about going after the State newspaper crowd since they have to pay to play on their web site….low hanging fruit? You bet.
How about following the story of the employee who opened an email at SCDOR that allowed phishing malware to expose our data to hackers?
And how ’bout beefing up the word processing formats in the comment window…
Hey thomas. Have another question for you. Why is the phone number for the Original Six Foundation a land line based in Bamberg? To find out is to find out so much more.
For the last 12 years, Indiana has been using gaming revenue to build out their roads, bridges, parks, recreation, etc etc and now that this is behind them, there really is nothing to do with the money but give it back. Truly a success story from the days of living in Chicago’s shadow and closed steel mills. Truly a bipartisan success story…
To support a South Carolina business, General Telephone CO?
Don’t know much about Gary, Indiana, huh, Thomas? Indiana, Land of Enchantment.
Legalized gambling, gaming, or whatever, will never fly in S.C. as long as the conservative right is in control. Ain’t gonna happen folks.
According to the terms of Daniels’ rebate legislation, married couples filing jointing in the Hoosier State will get an extra $222 next year.
$222 as in, no matter what amount you paid in income taxes, you are getting $222 if you filed? Wow, that sounds like those paying the most taxes are getting the least percentage in tax rebates, while those who pay little to nothing are getting a helluva lot back. What about businesses that also generated tax revenue? Where’s their rebate?
Why FITS, are you advocating redistribution of wealth? Taking from the rich and businesses and handing some of it to the poor? Oh, you!
It must be nice to blast our state government for an epic disaster of making its taxpaying citizenry susceptible to having their identities stolen, their businesses’ financial safety compromised, and their checking accounts made vulnerable, to the point where the state must churn out millions upon millions in spending to mitigate the damage done by such a catastrophe and to prevent such a catastrophe from occurring again, and yet a short while later trot out the dead horse of taxpayer rebates for another beating.
Speaking of SCDoR screw-ups, who is going to administer the rebates? Ohh, damn, that’s right. SCDoR.
Nevermind the veritable treasure trove of projects this state needs to get on the ball with (dredging Charleston harbor? upgrading the poorest schools? repairing roads/bridges?). Forget about the myriad of proposed tax increases (gas tax, state sales tax, the notion of state property tax, etc.) that has been talked about in the State House when Davis takes a stand for his silly little rebate idea. Don’t worry about trying instead to trim down and streamline government in order to afford tax cuts for small businesses and people in a responsible way (admittedly hard to do given our current legislature, but if you can’t do something right, don’t just resort to doing it fucking wrong).
Let me know when SC ever has anything close to a $2.1 billion surplus, because when that happens we can all go ice skating in Hell. If a $2.1 billion surplus translates into a $360 million rebate, how much will a $379.5 million surplus translate into for rebates? Because that’s what our surplus was for 2012.
SC isn’t cut out for this shit, and there are better ways to deal with our excess funds. Their rebate works because they got a huge unexpected surplus. Small surpluses like ours, even pretty concurrent ones, are better dealt with in other ways.
There are a number of good reasons why casinos are not good but probably one of the best now is that everyone is turning to them. There is a limited clientele for casinos. If there are a few casinos then there are plenty of customers for all, but as the number of casinos grows they have to start sharing customers and that gets difficult. Plus, has anyone been in the areas where the casinos are, Vegas, Atlantic City? There are some sorry neighborhoods around those places and crime and poverty like most people only see in movies. Used to was when a corporation would propose a casino they would ask local officials to get out of the way, leave them alone and take the money. Now when corporations want to build a casino they send in the fast talkers, stoking the “revenues” fire and trot out fancy reports about how everyone will be millionaires within six weeks after the casinos open “IF” they will just enact a penny sales tax increase and use that money to “INVEST” in “INFRASTRUCTURE” for the casino to help get them going. After all it is a tough economy. Welcome again P. T. Barnum.
South Carolina is never going to be able to give back any money to taxpayers because of the DOR fiasco, otherwise known as (Deputy Director Harry) Cooper’s Folly. Didn’t you say the pricetag on this will be over $300 Million (yes, MILLION)?
At that rate it would take 8 years of the agency’s budget to pay for this. The money flow in SC is hemmorhaging fast!!!
We may have to pay an additional $222 per household forever in addition to personal identification security for the rest of our lives!
Funny how this has hit the background and is no longer “news”.