SENATOR “FRUSTRATED” WITH LACK OF MOTION ON ISSUE
S.C. Sen. Tom Davis (R-Beaufort) is mulling a major piece of income tax legislation, sources familiar with his thinking tell FITS.
The second-term Senator – regarded as the leading pro-free market lawmaker in the S.C. General Assembly – is reportedly frustrated with the failure of legislative leaders to advance an income tax bill proposed more than three months ago by S.C. Sen. Katrina Shealy (R-Lexington).
Shealy’s bill called for the complete elimination of all brackets of the state’s individual income tax – a.k.a. the levy paid by all taxpayers and the vast majority of South Carolina businesses. Best of all, it did NOT call for corresponding tax hikes to “make up” any lost revenue.
“We need to tighten our belt like every family in South Carolina had to do the last couple of years,” Shealy told FITS at the time. ”Like every business we need to cut out unnecessary expenses and wasteful spending.”
Absolutely …
Davis is a strong supporter of Shealy’s bill.
“I support and will co-sponsor Katrina’s bill,” Davis told FITS in December. “Eliminating the state income tax would do two important things: First, it would promote economic growth in South Carolina. Simply put, zero-income-tax states grow faster and create more jobs. Second, eliminating the income tax would force South Carolina politicians to control state government spending. A recent survey by the Kansas Policy Institute reveals that states with an income tax spent 42 percent more per resident than the states without one.”
Davis declined to discuss details of his legislation, but our sources in the Senate bill room say his draft legislation has something to do with the recent income tax cuts passed in North Carolina.
Whatever he proposes, we have no doubt it will be along the lines of what Shealy has unveiled as opposed to S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley’s ridiculously inconsequential income tax “relief” plan – which would have provided a family of four with roughly $80 of tax relief a year (assuming there was surplus money in the state budget).
Anyway, as soon as we know something about Davis’ plan we’ll pass the info along …
One thing is crystal clear, though … South Carolina’s “Republican” legislative leaders will ram special interest handouts through the S.C. General Assembly in a matter of days, but when it comes to providing relief to the people paying those subsidies they can’t even schedule a hearing.
Seriously … Shealy filed her bill last December.
What are fiscal liberals like Senate president John Courson, finance chairman Hugh Leatherman and “majority” leader Harvey Peeler so afraid of?
20 comments
it’ll never get through…it makes too much sense.
It’s a shame it has no chance of passing, I guess we’ll never see just how horrendous the budget shortfalls would end up being, or how quickly some other tax would be raised to avoid cutting spending after the fact, or how quickly Katrina and Davis would pretend that they didn’t see it coming and therefore deserve none of the blame.
Free ponies for everyone!
I wish it would go through for the exact same reason, Smirks. Then all of the dumbasses would have to start goring their own oxen.
I wish the “states with no income taxes” argument would come with the reasons they don’t have an income tax (1) they collect the taxes through other means i.e. sales tax, property tax (2) there’s a bunch of fucking oil under the state and/or (3) they get more money from the federal government that they send.
Haven’t you learned that facts are not welcome on this site? You are messing up Sic Willie’s little stories.
Explain New Hampshire, please. No sales tax, no income tax. High property taxes and smaller government seems to work fine there,
Their property tax rate is 351% higher than ours? You want some of that?
Did you just pull that number out of thin air? A relative pays about $4000 on a house valued at $150K. That’s it. No income tax or sales tax. Plus with property taxes more money stays local. There is also the elimination of the cost and bureaucracy of collecting those other taxes. They have better schools, less crime… worth paying more for that?
http://taxfoundation.org/article/facts-figures-2013-how-does-your-state-compare
You can do the math.
That document shows plenty of areas where New Hampshire is ranked higher than South Carolina: Lower tax burden as a percentage of income (81.% to 8.4%), business tax climate overall rank (NH = #7, SC = #36), roughly same revenue per capita in NH,.. I didn’t find the 351% you mentioned. Which page?
New Hampshire is full of employed, college educated white people with a median house value nearly 2x ours. Yeah, their tax system and limited government works… for them.
Well, eliminating SC income taxs and doubling or tripling property taxes would at least be progressive as long as there weren’t 1,000 carve outs like there are in Texas.
It won’t get through because our masters don’t want to “tighten the belts”. Tax payer money to them is akin to owning a peach orchard, whenever they desire they just go out and pluck a few more off the trees. No big deal.
With personal and business income tax accounting for almost half of all state revenues, I want to see specifically which half of the state government they intend to close.
They will just take more federal dollars, just like the takers that SC has always been.
Interesting that you criticize the state for taking federal dollars while simultaneously demanding the state take more through a medicaid expansion. Also interesting that the democratic voters in SC (primarily minorities) make up the bulk of those receiving welfare.
Now when Libertarians start supporting Tax Cuts…I’ll be in…
Shootin’ heroin, Isolationism, anti-God and Ho’ chasin’ is all the libertarians seem to get motivated to do…
Freedom from gov’t persecution, through thievery, will help polish Davis’ profile, and make people forget he is a confidant of the disgraced Sanford….
So we are cutting our revenue first – then we need to “cut our spending'” but no plan or dicussion or outline or bill on how or where to do that. Typically well thought out plan by Sen. Shealy.
Yeh but she’s a “fiscal conservative.”Davis is too.I know this because they say they are.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/03/27/new-report-slams-kansas-tax-cuts/
And, he can take us to the same economic hell that Kansas’ Sam Brownback has taken those people to.
Of course, Brownback is a member of The Family/The Fellowship/C Street, Mark Sanford’s religio-political-business-military cult of choice. Is Sanford’s beard Davis a member, too?
The South Carolina FairTax Act (H-3116/S-185) eliminates the state income tax and keeps the sales tax rate at 6% by repealing the exemptions in our sales tax code. The 9 zero income tax states created 62% of all new jobs from 2002-2012.