The Answer to Road Funding: Tax Hikes?

THE LATEST PROPOSAL TO FIX OUR ROADS ASSUMES STATE GOVERNMENT DOESN’T HAVE ENOUGH MONEY Last week, H.3412 was placed on the Senate calendar for consideration. Originally the bill would have merely shifted revenue from the sales tax of motor vehicles – currently dedicated in part to the Education Improvement Act fund (EIA) – to the [...]

Transportation Funding: The Current Options

 WHAT’S THE PROBLEM: PRIORITIES OR FUNDING? This week, the Senate Finance Special Subcommittee on Transportation Funding kicked off a series of meetings to discuss several bills that could make big changes to the state’s transportation system. At the April 23 meeting, the Subcommittee Chair said they plan to have these bills reported on by May [...]

Renewable Energy: What’s the State’s Role?

HOW STATE FAVORITISM HURTS TAXPAYERS AND DRIVES UP ENERGY PRICES An attempt to loosen South Carolina energy regulation and licensing constraints for the benefit of solar energy firms has gained a fair amount of attention recently. A bill now in the legislature seeks to enable a process by which solar companies lease solar panels to [...]

Is South Carolina “Business Friendly” ?

THE ANSWER DEPENDS ON WHO YOU ARE Many government officials in South Carolina, particularly elected officials, take pride in frequently announcing that South Carolina is one of the most business friendly states in the nation. These pronouncements (here’s another) makes the state sound like a paradise of economic freedom, where opportunity is ensured for all [...]

More Spin on Taxes

 SOUTH CAROLINA HAS THE “LOWEST TAXES IN THE NATION”? WRONG. A report released by the Tax Foundation is, once again, being misrepresented by elected officials in South Carolina. Last week, social media buzzed with assertions that South Carolina has the “lowest tax rate in the nation per capita.” Unfortunately, this is flatly untrue. Here are [...]

Putting the Goodies Back In

WHY IS OUR SALES TAX HIGH? BECAUSE LAWMAKERS SPEND TOO MUCH TIME IN COLUMBIA, THAT’S WHY This week, as our policy analysts worked on our forthcoming annual guide, The Best and Worst of the General Assembly, we came across a tax reform bill that, we think, tells an interesting story. At least in theory, the [...]

Our Killer Sales Tax

Why does South Carolina – a state with one of the lowest income levels in the nation – have one of the highest sales tax rates in the nation? At 6 percent, South Carolina has the 16th highest sales tax rate in the nation. That’s far higher than the rates of neighboring North Carolina (4.75 [...]

The State Budget: Your priorities – or theirs?

YOU’RE A TAXPAYER? SORRY, YOU DIDN’T MAKE THE PRIORITY LIST This year, the General Assembly had more than $1 billion in new revenue to appropriate. The final version of the $23.5 billion spending plan, therefore, should be an excellent gauge of lawmakers’ priorities. Here’s what we know: Lawmakers created 250+ new full-time government employees; gave [...]

A Tale of Two Tax Proposals

Despite lawmakers’ disingenuous claims that South Carolina has some of the “lowest taxes in the nation,” the truth is that South Carolina taxpayers and businesses pay far too much to the state. The principle is simple: Taxes should be low and equitable, and South Carolina’s tax structure, for the most part, is neither. Consider: South [...]

Our Tax Burden: The Nation’s Best – or Worst?

Legislative leaders are claiming that South Carolina “has the lowest state taxes in the nation.” If only it were true. Unfortunately the claim confuses tax collections and tax rates. It’s true that the state collects fewer dollars – but those who pay taxes, pay at higher rates.