What’s the plan?

Tell the truth. When you voted on Tuesday, were you doing your civic duty, or just hoping that by casting your ballot, the mail would stop coming?!

It has been a long and grueling election season, that’s for sure. And with a runoff election looming in key races on June 26, it’s not over yet.

But here at Palmetto Promise, the campaigns have been hard to watch for a very different reason: lack of specific solutions. Millions of dollars have been spent on advertising, almost exclusively to promote or attack this personality or that. But as far as we can tell, little to no airtime has been spent promoting a bold, practical policy vision to move our state forward.

But never fear! Palmetto Promise is hard at work crafting just such a positive roadmap for South Carolina’s future. We call it The Freedom Agenda. In the coming months, we will follow our own advice and provide specifics, but here is a sneak peek at the core of that Agenda:

• Education Freedom. Parents should be able to use the tax dollars they are paying into the system to customize a K-12 education experience for their child. Teachers should start to see more dollars in their classrooms and less in the district office.
• Tax & Spending Freedom. The GOP put tax conformity on the primary ballot. This has added to the discussion of our unfair, unstable and uncompetitive state tax code. Our state has a spending problem as well. It is time for accountability.
• Energy Freedom. The state should not be in the energy business. Ratepayers should have more than one choice for their energy.
• Healthcare Freedom. Doctors and patients – not insurance companies – should be in charge of health care decisions. Medicaid should be fixed, not expanded.

Practically, this agenda is the roadmap to not only a government that we can trust, but to more jobs, more opportunity and a better life for all.