|
If it’s broke (and it is) then fix it
By Theron Willis
HOMETOWN NEWS
Dr. Michael Fanning of the Olde English Consortium gave a presentation pleading the case for comprehensive tax reform for South Carolina to a full crowd last Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m. at Greenville’s Carolina First Center. Fanning said that the state’s current tax system is outdated and disproportionate, relying too heavily on unreliable revenue steams and allowing too many exemptions for sales and services so that the state’s tax revenue is shrinking exponentially each year. Fanning is executive director of the Olde English Consortium a group comprised of eight school districts in the Rock Hill area dedicated to improving education in their region and statewide.
According to Fanning, SC is in its third year of negative revenue growth collecting less money than the previous year. As we enter into the 2010-2011 year we are down $600 million and by the end of that year we could be an additional $1.5 billion short. Continuing budgetary shortfalls has caused cuts in many critical areas especially education, which has suffered nine rounds of cuts amounting to over $700 million in the past eighteen months. For this coming school year K-12 education will be funded at 1994-1995 levels.
Fanning said that at one time the state had a stable tax system but because of the permanent tax cuts and exemptions enacted during more prosperous times including the virtual elimination of one of our most stable sources of revenues (personal property tax), that is no longer the case. Now the recession and subsequent high unemployment, and revenue from income and sales tax has dropped and continues to drop, which has placed the state in a precarious position.
For the rest of the story, see this week’s issue of Hometown News.
 Email This Post
|
