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With taxes on the tip of every tongue at the South Carolina State House this year, an unexpected bill filed by a Democrat has proposed the complete elimination of the state’s income tax.
Our founding editor Will Folks reported earlier today (January 14, 2025) on S.C. governor Henry McMaster‘s anemic proposed income tax cuts included in his 2025-2026 executive budget – a proposal that comes amid ongoing debate among the state’s conservative lawmakers as to how much the state’s income tax should be cut.
Sources close to the legislative debate tell FITSNews to anticipate a race to the bottom between S.C. House ways and means committee and the Senate finance committee leadership on this issue.
While these lawmakers are expected to go back and forth at the margins, nobody close to the GOP supermajority’s leadership has suggested a complete elimination of the personal income tax in the state – something Democrat state representative Justin Bamberg argued this week is not only possible, but necessary.
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The Governor and “conservatives” say take income taxes from 6.2% to 6%. Take another $1.2 BILLION in tax dollars and put it into the EVER growing state “Rainy Day Savings” fund.
— Justin Bamberg, Esq. (@JustinBamberg) January 14, 2025
Well, I say there have been TOO MANY RAINY DAYS for S.C. citizens! Take the State Income Tax to… pic.twitter.com/mpeJv0Q6eO
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On the opening day of the state’s two-year legislative session, Bamberg filed a bill proposing a complete cut of the state’s personal income tax. Bamberg explained to his social media following why he did so in a video recorded in his car.
“The governor’s proposed budget seeks to lower the state income tax from 6.2% to 6%, seeks to offer a $2,000
income tax credit to active duty law enforcement, firefighters and other first responders, and it also proposes that the state take $1.2 billion to add more money to the quote, unquote, ‘rainy day savings fund,” Bamberg added that he “couldn’t disagree more” with McMaster’s minuscule tax reduction proposal.
“Ladies and gentlemen, it is time for the state of South Carolina to do better for you,” Bamberg said.
“If you’re out there grinding and you’re working your 40-50-60 hours a week, instead of merely lowering the income tax percentage two tenths of a percent, I propose we cut it to zero for everybody,” the attorney from Bamberg, S.C. said. “Cut it to zero for all the working people in this state. That’s our farmers, that’s our teachers, our law enforcement, our firefighters, our first responders.”
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RELATED | MCMASTER’S LIMP-WRISTED ‘TAX CUT’
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Bamberg, who is ostensibly to the political left of the state’s GOP leadership, talked common sense in a way that’s rare among members of the state’s General Assembly.
“The state doesn’t exist to just collect money and make money off of you every single year,” Bamberg said, adding that he disagrees with his counterparts that “we should be doing nickel and dime cuts on income tax – take the tax to zero.”
“They have people tricked,” Bamberg told FITSNews after the publication of his video. “All these ’tax credits’ and dangling carrots to keep people blinded wouldn’t be necessary if you just got to keep what you actually worked for.”
While the state’s GOP majority are locked in perpetual battles with arch-conservatives who attempt to out-flank their positions by championing more conservative legislation, their complete outflanking to the right by a proud Democrat certainly wasn’t anticipated at the start of this legislative session.
I’m “a Democrat saying that, I’m a small business owner. I get it. Take the tax to zero for people, because our state can easily afford it,” Bamberg concluded.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
(Via: Travis Bell)
Dylan Nolan is the director of special projects at FITSNews. He graduated from the Darla Moore school of business in 2021 with an accounting degree. Got a tip or story idea for Dylan? Email him here. You can also engage him socially @DNolan2000.
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15 comments
The more I hear of him lately, the more I like Representative Justin Bamberg.
I’ve always had a lot of respect for Rep. Bamberg, this just solidifies that respect even more.
Here’s that awkward moment where a Democrat “out-Republicans” the RINOs in the state house.
Hmm a democrat proposing something reasonable because the RINO caucus under leadership of puppet Murrell Smith doesn’t have to balls to do anything about the extortion this state imposes on citizens.
If the math works, do it, but I doubt we can do a complete elimination of state income taxes. We already have the 6th lowest comprehensive tax burden in the country. Realistically I think we can get to 4%, MAYBE 3%. And that would make us the second lowest tax burden state in the country. (No-one is going to beat Alaska because they actually send oil royalty checks to their citizens offsetting their taxes. But offsetting that low tax burden is a high cost of goods.) What I don’t see in this article, or any others on FITS on this topic? An actual study of our state revenues and budget that declares with firm certainty that we can cut the tax to zero and still pay all our bills, have a reasonable rainy day fund, keep a AAA credit rating, and not have the roads and infrastructure go to shit. We have ALOT of bridges in this state that need replacing – we need to know we can still afford that. I don’t think I’ve ever reposted a comment from a prior article, but this time it’s worth it:
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.
Don’t forget our retirees! Why are WE still being taxed?
Amen, Bea!
Especially ridiculous school taxes. The carte blanche school boards and districts have enjoyed and abused for decades needs to be snatched from their grubby little fingers. School districts need to learn to live within budgets and not expect to get everything they desire, as has been the case for far too long.
Amen! State retirees still getting taxed.
I have to see that no other taxes, fees or charges by the state or counties will increase at any point after the income tax elimination is in effect. In other words, if the income tax elimination at the state level goes away, the counties and other municipalities and jurisdictions cannot invoke any taxes, fees or other charges to make up for the loss of money that was derived by these jurisdictions from the state income tax loss.
Amen!
Hell just froze over.
This is fine as long as spending is cut to offset this loss of income.
I like the idea. Just wasn’t aware that Justin’s voters paid taxes.
Since when do teachers work 40-50-60 hours per week? The fat-ass in my neighborhood may work 40, but just for 9 months out of the year. Then she whines that she needs to earn more. She could balance her household budget by eating less.
Cut income tax… to make up the difference they just raise every other tax.
No more school taxes, especially on childless taxpayers. They should not be forced to pay for others responsibilities! Obviously, the South Carolina Education Lottery is a big lie!!!