By Paul Hyde
A camel, it has been said, is a horse designed by a committee.
A committee of state GOP leaders recently designed a “historic” income tax-cut plan.
But what they delivered was a camel: lopsided, ungainly, and reeking of a bad attitude.
Worse, they put the cart before the camel, announcing the tax-cut plan with much ballyhoo and bunkum before realizing that it doesn’t cut taxes for most South Carolinians.
It actually raises taxes in 2026 for 60% of South Carolinians (or nearly 1.7 million tax filers), as per estimates released by the state Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office a week after the big announcement.
The bill includes huge tax cuts for some, but those cuts overwhelmingly benefit the wealthy.
Roughly 9,900 tax filers with more than $1 million in income would see their taxes cut by an average of $31,000, according to reporting by S.C. Daily Gazette Editor Seanna Adcox.
Many others would get little or nothing.
The bill was supposed to be fast-tracked for approval, but now House leaders have postponed debate while they explore other options.
No, I’m not making this up.
This was a hugely embarrassing episode of DOGE-level ineptitude by the people who are supposed to be leading our state.
Redesigned camel
At least the bill was shelved for the moment. But Rep. Brandon Newton, chairman of Ways and Means’ tax policy subcommittee, said Republicans remain “committed to passing income tax reform this year.”
That means another tax-cut camel may soon be galumphing along the dusty road to the Statehouse.
Whatever rough beast emerges out of ongoing discussions, the General Assembly should reject it.
State lawmakers should not cut taxes.
The postponed bill slashed taxes by more than $200 million, with a provision to cut $200 million in taxes every year when revenue projections rise by 5%. A revised bill might cut taxes by that amount as well.
We simply can’t afford that. Our state has too many critical needs that should be addressed right now, including infrastructure, education, health care, crime and public safety.
We should remember that the General Assembly just cut taxes over the past few years by a whopping $1 billion, on top of sending $1 billion back as rebates in 2022, limiting the ability of lawmakers to deal effectively with the state’s top needs, such as fixing our notoriously awful roads.
A bold new plan called Momentum 2025 offers great hope for upgrading our roads, but it carries a price tag of $1 billion a year. There’s no plan, however, to fund Momentum 2025, as Adcox pointed out in an excellent commentary tracing the history of our road woes.
The state faces other critical concerns, such as the teacher shortage that results in potentially thousands of South Carolina students beginning each school year without a fully qualified teacher in the classroom.
Health care challenges
We’ve got dire healthcare challenges in South Carolina as well. An estimated 521,660 South Carolinians under age 65 lack health insurance, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
We should follow the lead of 40 other states in expanding Medicaid, drawing down billions in federal funds and investing some state money to provide health care coverage for an additional 360,000 low-income South Carolinians.
In addition, with Medicaid threatened by cuts on the federal level, state lawmakers may need to step in to protect South Carolina’s most vulnerable citizens.
South Carolina also needs to invest more in children, especially in the areas of prenatal care and childcare.
South Carolina ranks near the bottom of the nation for child care affordability. Overall, our state ranks among the worst in the nation for the well-being of children, according to the annual Kids Count.
The S.C. Department of Juvenile Justice, meanwhile, has been plagued by overcrowding and other unsafe conditions.
South Carolina desperately needs to invest more in law enforcement as well. Our state has one of the highest murder ratesin the nation and one of the highest rates of fatalities on the road, which includes one of the highest rates of drunken driving deaths.
One study called South Carolina “the most dangerous state for drunk driving in America.”
A tax cut doesn’t solve those problems.
And state lawmakers have made big new promises to South Carolinians this year, including plans to spend $60 million that we can’t afford on school vouchers. You can bet Republicans will want to spend a lot more on that in the future as well.
Lawmakers who support a big tax cut argue that it’s needed to keep South Carolina growing, but that’s not a problem. We’re already one of the fastest-growing states in the nation.
Finally, it would be irresponsible to cut state taxes with the U.S. economy in a tailspin as the stock market and consumer confidence plummet.
With Washington in chaos, we need sober heads in Columbia to address our state’s most pressing needs, and that doesn’t include a big annual tax cut.
State leaders have to be the adults in the room.
Paul Hyde is a longtime journalist and teacher in the Upstate. He worked 18 years for the Greenville News as a columnist, editorial writer, education reporter and arts writer. He holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from Clemson and Harvard universities. He has written for the Houston Chronicle, Dallas Morning News and USA Today, among other publications. He currently is a regular contributor to the Greenville Journal, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Classical Voice North America.
