SC

SC Sales Tax Hike: Even The Liberals Get It

BRACK: PALMETTO STATE WOULD “SUFFER MIGHTILY” UNDER GOP SALES TAX INCREASE || By FITSNEWS || There’s not a whole lot of common ground on fiscal matters between this website and the S.C. Statehouse Report – a publication run by liberal editor Andy Brack. Don’t get us wrong: We think the world of…

BRACK: PALMETTO STATE WOULD “SUFFER MIGHTILY” UNDER GOP SALES TAX INCREASE

|| By FITSNEWS || There’s not a whole lot of common ground on fiscal matters between this website and the S.C. Statehouse Reporta publication run by liberal editor Andy Brack.

Don’t get us wrong: We think the world of Brack (and greatly admire his writing), but he generally resides on the left of the state’s political spectrum when it comes to fiscal issues whereas we generally reside on the right.

Accordingly, when certain leaders of South Carolina’s “Republican-controlled” legislative branch unveiled a highly duplicitous plan to raise the state’s gasoline tax, we suspected Brack would (like the state’s liberal mainstream media) go along with the scam.

Boy were we wrong …

In a must-read column published late last week, Brack surprised us by dissing a key component of the proposal – a one cent increase in the statewide sales tax – in no uncertain terms.

“The state would suffer mightily,” Brack wrote of the proposed tax hike.

“Simply put, it’s a dumb idea,” he continued.  “Not only would it make the Palmetto State less competitive, but it would catapult South Carolina into having the highest sales tax rate in the Southeast and the second highest in the nation!”

Wow … we concur.  Wholeheartedly.

Brack’s idea?

“If lawmakers want to anchor road money to sales tax, a smarter way is to focus on the billions of dollars of special-interest sales tax exemptions that currently are law,” he wrote, noting that South Carolina exempts more money in sales tax than it collects.

“If legislators simply reviewed sales tax exemptions and targeted things that really shouldn’t be exempted, they should easily find $600 million a year in lost revenue,” Brack continued.  “And a bonus — lawmakers wouldn’t have to ‘raise’ taxes. Instead, they’d just cut a tax break they shouldn’t have been giving all along.”

(To read his column in its entirety, CLICK HERE).

Again … we concur.  In fact we’ve been railing on these exemptions for years (specifically the ones targeted to special interests).

Brack deserves credit not only for seeing through this tax hike scam – but for articulating an eminently sensible policy alternative.  Let’s hope “Republicans” and Democrats in the S.C. General Assembly listen to him and resist the urge to raise taxes.

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37 comments

Flip Coscoe January 20, 2015 at 10:05 am

User fee’s and increases in the sales tax is the only way EVERYBODY pays their ‘fair share’.

50% of the people in America don’t pay federal/state taxes yet most receive government welfare-Medicaid/food stamps/Section 8 housing assistance etc…the EIC is a government hand out.

Only way to get these people to contribute is to tax what they spend.

This also applies to illegals. Let em have a DL and work ID so they pay taxes. They are already receiving welfare. NO voting or path to citizenship yet NO deportation unless they are criminals or related to Rocky.

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Rocky January 20, 2015 at 11:18 am

Actually, nearly everyone pays income tax in their pay checks. Now – if you’re upset because Bush and Rove expanded tax credits to people that allowed them to get refunds back that exceeded what they paid in – I suggest you give your local GOP leadership a call and ask them to rescind the Bush tax cuts on people earning under 100K a year. Be my guess Buddy boy – be my guest. As for sales taxes – they traditionally hit the poor hardest and that’s why they are a favorite for the South Carolina ruling elite. For a conservative state, SC taxes the crap out of everything. Retail purchases, food, income, taking a crap, breathing. And then they waste it all – so that we have crappy roads leading into Crapville where you live. I don’t agree with Will much, but I do agree that given the tax burden placed on the SC people, you’de think SC would be a utopia, not a shit hole.

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Flip Coscoe January 20, 2015 at 12:01 pm

“Actually, nearly everyone pays income tax in their pay checks. ”

Oh. You mean the 92 MILLION adults not working are paying ‘income’ taxes?

You ok Rock?

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Smirks January 20, 2015 at 11:27 am

The poor pay state/local taxes bigtime, bruh. Unless you’re making under $3k you are paying state income tax in SC. (Top tax bracket at $14,400.)

http://www.tax-brackets.org/southcarolinataxtable

Poor people pay property taxes a lot too. Even if they rent their apartment, obviously the cost of the property tax results in a higher rent to “make up the difference,” so the poor still pay those taxes.

Let em have a DL and work ID so they pay taxes.

Sounds like amnesty to me. (Also, illegals do pay taxes in many cases.)

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Flip Coscoe January 20, 2015 at 12:06 pm

“Poor people pay property taxes a lot too. Even if they rent their apartment, obviously the cost of the property tax results in a higher rent to “make up the difference,” so the poor still pay those taxes.”

LMAO!!! That may be the dumbest thing you have ever posted!!

Amnesty? If amnesty is defined as allowing illegals to work and pay taxes to stay with their family-all for that.Can’t deport them and they are already bankrupting states by saturating the medicaid and welfare rolls. NO path to citizenship OR voting however.

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Nölff January 20, 2015 at 12:08 pm

What would be your solution to illegals?

Just curious.

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Flip Coscoe January 20, 2015 at 12:48 pm

They should be arrested and/or deported with their children however we know that will never happen. I propose the following:

status quo…no path to citizenship OR vote..give them a work permit and allow them to pay local, state and federal taxes…NO FICA deductions as they will never become citizens…eligible for Obamacare until it disappears in 2016.

You Know My Name January 20, 2015 at 10:06 am

Countdown till Smirks’ comment about how government knows better what to do with our money than we do in …5, …4, …3, …

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Smirks January 20, 2015 at 10:44 am

Sales taxes are regressive and I generally don’t support them for that reason.

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Irrational Tax Policy January 20, 2015 at 10:56 am

Not to mention variable and thus unreliable to be the foundation of a modern tax system.

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TSIB January 20, 2015 at 2:31 pm

Well, if they start taxing electricity, as Brack proposes, that’s gonna be pretty reliable. Not many of us can do without electricity.

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Dan Ruck January 20, 2015 at 10:14 am

Another thing: Andy fact-checks his stories before publishing them. Both you and he do a commendable job of keeping spelling and grammatical mistakes out of the public eye, but I read you mostly for laughs.

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Winks January 20, 2015 at 6:32 pm

Awwwwww ….. you are such a wittle angry sociopath. Awwwwwwwww. Someone pee in your corn flakes, again? And I say again because we know exactly who you are and where you live.

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All emotion, no facts January 20, 2015 at 7:10 pm

Well, we know they didn’t cum on his corn flakes, or he wouldn’t be so angry.

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west_rhino January 20, 2015 at 10:15 am

proposed by RINOs Brack has something to diss, newsworthy, not, predictable opportunistic free shot, you know it.

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Irrational Tax Policy January 20, 2015 at 10:27 am

In December 2014, 32% of my sales were non-taxable. In November 2014, 62% were non-taxable. On average, slightly more than 50% are non-taxable. In most instances, the sales go to the same type customers. Many of them are taxable in one side of the plant while those in other areas are non-taxable.

Our tax code makes no sense in a rational world.

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Nölff January 20, 2015 at 10:27 am

If they were true “Liberals”, they wouldn’t get it. That term is used too loosely.

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Bible Thumper January 20, 2015 at 10:52 am

Details, details.
The major sales tax exemptions are food, gasoline, and $300 limit on automobiles.

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Irrational Tax Policy January 20, 2015 at 10:58 am

Can’t see how you could leave out the manufacturing exemptions.

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Bible Thumper January 20, 2015 at 11:11 am

Exempted are wholesale items and products not intent end for final consumption, utilities and fuel.
Eliminating the wholesale exemption would be crazy since products often change hand 4 times between manufacturer and the user. 4 X 6% = 24%
Also things like farmers fuel, seed and fertilizer would put them at a disadvantage to other states.
Manufacturers paying sales tax on machinery and raw material would put our state at a disadvantage.
Another big exemption is real estate.

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Tom January 20, 2015 at 11:21 am

The biggest exemption of all is services and investments. No tax on the sale of a closely held business for example, or accounting services, or medical services, or dental services, or legal services, or cleaning services, or consulting services, on advertising etc, etc. And that will never change, because all of those, along with the car and boat exclusion, effect high income people.

The whole idea behind sales tax is to push the cost of government onto the middle class and cut taxes on the higher income folks. That is why Republican are always trying to replace income taxes with sales taxes, and then exempt anything important to wealthy donors..

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Smirks January 20, 2015 at 11:39 am

The whole idea behind sales tax is to push the cost of government onto the middle class and cut taxes on the higher income folks.

All the revenues lost have to be made up somehow. Conservatives can quote the Laffer Curve till the cows come home and it won’t change reality, as per the Brownback Experiment.

When taxes are cut for the rich, and revenues fall, either taxes that disproportionally hit the poor go up, or services that disproportionally help the poor go down. i.e. “Fuck the poor.” -or- “Fuck the poor.” Usually a mixture of both.

The “less taxes, less spending” crowd will inevitably get what they want, and be even less satisfied with government as a result, and call for even more draconian cuts, and so on and so forth.

vicupstate January 20, 2015 at 1:10 pm

More sales are EXEMPTED from the tax, than are actually TAXED by the sales tax.

The $300 limit on automobiles is extremely regressive, and needs to be REVERSED. In other words, you get a pass on sales taxes UP to $300 worth, but pay the full tax on everything beyond that.

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dm10ae January 20, 2015 at 12:47 pm

State sales tax is $300 max on a plane, boat, or automobile, $1million dollar plane is $300 max.Go figure.

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Tom January 20, 2015 at 2:08 pm

Not surprising at all. Only wealthy people and large corporations buy planes. Those are not the people Republicans want to tax. They want to tax you.

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SomalianRoadCorp January 20, 2015 at 5:27 pm

Just ignore the fact that the wealthy pay a much larger percentage in income taxes.

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Tom January 20, 2015 at 5:52 pm

Much larger percentage of what? The Average Taxpayer pays a larger percentage of their income and net worth in total taxes than the richest 1%. .

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uh oh January 20, 2015 at 6:57 pm

Really, because I pay 30% right now? What do they pay like 15%?

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It is what it is January 20, 2015 at 7:09 pm

He’s right, here’s a nice chart:

http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2014/12/who-pays-for-government.html

Note that there are crony operators(GE, Google, all the TBTF banks, etc.) that get away with paying nothing..but they don’t represent the majority.

TSIB January 20, 2015 at 2:30 pm

“Accordingly, when certain leaders of South Carolina’s “Republican-controlled” legislative branch unveiled a highly duplicitous plan to raise the state’s gasoline tax,”

Um, not just the gas tax, the sales tax on EVERYTHING.

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Cy Guy January 20, 2015 at 5:28 pm

Let’s hope Dems take the same tack with S277, a proposed tax on cellular phone usage – it’s an outdated proposal that the state can ill afford. Best (aka worst) of all, it would be used to subsidize landline service. Welcome back to the 20th century.

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Xavier January 21, 2015 at 3:06 pm

Steve Forbes just wrote about this too in Greenville Online. It sounds even worse once more details are included. 4.5 million cell phone users subject to this new tax! http://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/opinion/contributors/2015/01/21/steve-forbes-cell-phone-taxes-hurt-consumers/22116615/.

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803 Was Here January 20, 2015 at 6:36 pm

Time to cut state and local government workers paid holidays in half … time to cut both state and local government workers annual leave and sick leave in half, too. 100s of millions a year will be saved. Besides why should YOU pay for it?????

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Kyle January 20, 2015 at 8:56 pm

I am in state government. I like my holidays but I can tell you there are too many of them. It is disruptive to out mission, and most people goof off on those days, not having anything to do.
I say we get to work, earn our checks, and then ask for more money. it is a win for the taxpayer.

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truthmonger January 20, 2015 at 9:46 pm

Doubt you’re REALLY in government. If you were, you’d realize that the majority of government gets as many or fewer holidays as the majority of corporate employees. And we DO earn our pathetically small checks. False flagger…. try leaving your mom’s basement.

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Slartibartfast January 20, 2015 at 11:38 pm

I continue to be surprised that some people in this State think they are entitled to money they did not earn. I did not make anyone poor, and I should not have to make anyone rich.

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TyroneMamaCollards January 21, 2015 at 9:37 am

No more taxes !

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