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South Carolina governor Henry McMaster‘s legacy as a status quo sycophant has been secure for some time. The poster politician for institutional accommodation, intellectual incuriosity and outdated ideological intransigence, McMaster has consistently given the Palmetto State heaping helpings of the same-old, same-old at a time when change was desperately needed.
The 77-year-old Columbia native with the guffawing drawl, Confederate mullet and neatly folded pocket square has already served more than eight years in office – and will wind up serving a full decade as governor by the time his second full term expires in January 2027.
“What, exactly, is McMaster doing with his place in history?” I asked during his last election.
Sadly, we got the answer in 2023 when this unrepentant crony capitalist presided over the largest corporate welfare payment in state history – a $1.3 billion giveaway to electric vehicle manufacturer Scout Motors. McMaster has also signed off on pork-laden “Republican” budgets which have expanded bloated, unnecessary bureaucracies. Furthermore, he’s done absolutely nothing to move the needle on substantive tax relief, tort reform, spending reform or expanded academic freedom.
The few issues he’s led on… he’s led from behind.
No wonder South Carolinians remain behind the eight ball when it comes to jobs and incomes – and a host of other critical metrics.

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This week, McMaster rolled out his 2025-2026 budget – which proposes to blow a record $41.6 billion on the Palmetto State’s results-challenged government beginning July 1, 2025 and running through June 30, 2026. That’s an increase of $1.4 billion (3.5%) over the current budget.
“South Carolina’s booming economy has once again created a large budget surplus, this year totaling over $1.8 billion in unexpected revenue,” McMaster said in announcing his spending plan, which he said challenges lawmakers to “think big” and “be bold.”
Sadly, the governor failed to take his own advice. Of the $1.8 billion in “unexpected revenue” – a figure likely to be much higher by the time it’s all said and done – McMaster proposed giving just $193.5 million of it back to taxpayers by trimming the state’s top marginal income tax rate from 6.2% to 6%.
“We don’t need to stop at 6% – we should continue cutting or eliminating the personal income tax rate as much as we can, and as fast as we can,” McMaster said.
Really? Then why isn’t he doing it?
Or is “talk” all Republicans in South Carolina are capable of when it comes to meaningfully cutting taxes?
To be clear, McMaster’s spending plan (.pdf) is a public relations document, not an actual budget. The actual budget – the one which will be used to run the Palmetto State’s top-heavy bureaucratic Leviathan – will be drafted by lawmakers on the S.C. House ways and means committee and the Senate finance committee. Those two committees will also take the lead on any tax “reform” proposals this year.
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RELATED | GROUP THAT TRIED TO TAKE OUT TRUMP NOW BACKS HIS TAX CUT?
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As I have often pointed out, South Carolina has the highest top marginal income tax rate in the southeast – an oppressively high levy which continues to stifle organic job creation and job growth. Neighboring North Carolina – which has seen multiple rounds of tax cuts in recent years – is continuing to trim its top marginal rate, with plans to reduce it further (from 4.25% to 3.99%) by 2027. Kentucky – where the income rate is 4% – is currently phasing out its income tax. Three other southern states – Florida, Tennessee and Texas – have no income tax.
But McMaster wants to brag about dropping our anti-competitively high levy to a point where it… remains anti-competitively high?
Pathetic…
FITSNews has called for tax cuts for decades – only to be ignored by GOP supermajorities in Columbia, S.C. which campaign each election cycle on how “conservative” they are.
Are they conservatives? Hell no. They’re tax-and-spend liberals who reward their corporate, special interest and bureaucratic masters while leaving the rest of us holding the bag.
Lawmakers should reject McMaster’s pittance of a tax cut and aggressively slash South Carolina’s top marginal rate to a level where it is competitive with Florida, Tennessee, Texas, North Carolina and the rest of our tax-cutting regional rivals. Anything short of that is not real “reform.”
BANNER: Travis Bell Columbia SC Photographers
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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1 comment
While I do agree that income taxes can be lower substantially in this state, there is some nuance to this…. yes Texas has no income tax but does have possibly the most brutal residential and commercial property taxes in the Southeast (some stats I’ve seen say it’s the highest in the southeast). Florida also has other higher offsetting taxes to the absence of income tax as well. You have to look at the overall tax burden in a state to get a true picture. When you do that, SC has the 6th lowest overall comprehensive tax burden of the 50 states at 7.86% – and honestly, the variation of the lowest nine states (apart from #50) is from 7.82 to 7.90 percent. On the comprehensive level, we edge out Tennessee (at 7.96%), as well as Florida, Kentucky and Texas – all of the states cited by the article as having no income tax. Alaska is far and away the lowest of all 50 states at 4.6% – they stand apart from all the rest. We could stand to still lower ours, but we are by no means a high-tax state on the comprehensive level.