Crossroads 2026: Alan Wilson Zeroes in on Affordability

Before the grand projects of eliminating the state income tax, etc., Alan Wilson should pick the low-hanging fruit of the real estate companies that swoop-in, usually from North Carolina or Virginia, buy apartment complexes and try to double the rent on tenants who can barely afford the rent as it is.
He can set the process in motion immediately as Attorney General because these companies are engaged in racketeering, rent gouging conspiracies, and interstate tax fraud, in addition to promoting gang violence and endangering the lives of tenants.
First, the statistics: in the best of economies, about 30% of families/singles/households live in rented units, be they apartments, townhouses, condos, of houses. In stressed economies, that percentage rises to near 50% and causes homelessness.
One specific neophyte company, Emerald City Associates, Inc., makes no secret of, but brags about, its plans to push the rents up.
They do that by cosmetic measures, such as repainting the exteriors, while ignoring long-festering structural problems and safety issues. That is not only the proverbial putting lipstick on a pig; it is a figurative feeding cocaine to wild hogs and unleashing them on cities.
Why not just move, you say?
If the proverbial rising tide lifts all ships; the figurative dumping of sewage raises the water table. That means: if enough oligopolies raise the rent, it rises everywhere.
And they basically use a “your wallet or your life” scheme. Sign a new lease at the doubled rent or get evicted.
That is accomplished by fraud upon the courts. The refuse to accept the present rent from the tenant then turn around and pretend to the court that the tenant refused to pay the rent “when due and demanded.”
This is NOT the free market; it is the price-fixing-conspiracy market.
Alan Wilson, are you paying attention?
The big rental companies may be your donors; but the squeezed tenants could be your voters.

“I’ll make South Carolina affordable for your family and profitable for your business,” Wilson said, referring to his plans to eliminate the state income tax, cut property taxes and do away with wasteful government spending.”

Translation: The average citizen will see less from the government. Education will not improve, roads will not improve, health care will not improve, and your lifestyle will not improve, but I will give you an income tax cut and a property tax cut, because those favor the wealthy. I will then shift more of the burden of operating the state to a regressive sales tax, so that the poor and middle class pay more of the burden.