PrintPrintBusiness leaders will promote numerous tax proposals, including a cigarette tax increase, to a Legislature that will have little new money to spend, if any.
By Mike Fitts
mfitts@scbiznews.com
Published Dec. 24, 2008
The business community’s wish list for the 2009 Legislature focuses on two areas for which it believes reform is necessary: taxes and torts.
It will not even bother to wish for considerable new spending from the state’s shrinking general fund.
The Legislature will begin writing the new budget from the current year’s income level, which is almost $1 billion below what was appropriated in 2008. So, new spending projects will be few and far between. Instead, business leaders will be emphasizing changes that can be made that do not affect overall state revenue, especially on taxes.
There’s a consensus among business groups that the state’s tax structure is badly flawed, and that the 2006 changes leave businesses vulnerable to paying much more than their fair share. The law exempted homeowners’ property taxes on a primary residence from school operating costs and added a penny to the sales tax; business leaders believe that the tax code now leans too heavily on business to fund schools and local governments.
As it has in years past, the S.C. Chamber of Commerce is advocating for a comprehensive look at all state tax laws. State chamber CEO Otis Rawl said that so many exemptions and changes have been added to the system that “we’ve compromised our tax system by piecemealing things together.” The tax code has not kept up with the changes in the economy, especially with the growth of the service economy, and outdated exemptions have been retained, Rawl said.
The objective: to build a more equitable and stable system, balanced on income property and sales taxes. The chamber said that South Carolina has the second-highest property tax rate for industrial users — one that frequently is adjusted with an exemption or other deal.
Read more about this story in the Dec. 29 issue of the Columbia Regional Business Report.
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