When the COVID-19 madness hit, the Governor and the House of Representatives had already had their crack at the state budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2020.

On Tuesday, the SC House Labor, Commerce & Industry Committee unanimously passed H.4431, a bill to standardize South Carolina’s business license tax process and provide relief to local businesses. Over 230 of the total 271 municipalities levy a business license tax on local businesses. Because municipalities have different processes for collecting theses taxes (different forms,

Last month, Reason Foundation released its 24th Annual Highway Report on the condition of America’s roads and bridges. The annual study provides state-by-state comparative data, rating each state according to factors such as rural/urban interstate conditions and cost-effectiveness of spending per mile.

A recent poll conducted by the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce shows that 71% of registered voters support a simpler state tax code. Since 2017, Palmetto Promise has been doing the research to show how South Carolina’s unfair, unstable, and uncompetitive tax system is killing the little guy. The good news: states like North Carolina

Tax reform advocate Ellen Weaver of the Palmetto Promise Institute said the surplus shows the state can handle big changes — such as lowering rates and broadening the base — in revenue collections. Weaver added current budgeting practices need to be addressed.

PPI CEO Ellen Weaver's testimony to the Senate Finance Taxation System Review and Reform Subcommittee from Jan. 16, 2019.

During those mad, mad days at the end of December, known as the Christmas holiday news hole, a number of bombshells dropped. Here are two that you will want to know about. Progress on the sale of Santee Cooper. Avery Wilks of The State reports that on the day before the state Public Service Commission

Without a significant fix, federal tax cuts would have actually meant state tax increases. Thankfully, House and Senate lawmakers came to an agreement and avoided the immediate tax crisis.

Back in February, we raised the alarm about how the big tax changes out of Washington passed in late 2017 would actually increase state taxes due to the way that South Carolina “conforms” to the federal tax code. Our economist—Dr. Rebecca Gunnlaugsson—outlined a roadmap for how to hold taxpayers harmless and move South Carolina closer

This originally appeared in the Statehouse Report on March 16, 2018. By Lindsay Street, Statehouse correspondent South Carolina could get its first real shot at income tax reform this session or next after more than a decade of talk, said Speaker Pro Tem Tommy Pope, R-York. That’s thanks to a little-known, annual adjustment called conformity