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Graham countering foreign VATS

May 15, 2009 By

Senator Lindsey Graham has introduced legislation that would require the American government to negotiate fair border tax treatment for U.S. goods and services.

That has received applause from American manufacturers who say they have faced a severe disadvantage in the global market due to foreign border-adjusted taxes, including value-added(VAT) taxes.

American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition Director Auggie Tantillo says “VATS” are everywhere except here, and the playing field needs to be evened.   “All of Europe now has value-added taxes, all of Asia, China, Japan, Korea, India, Pakistan.  Even our free-trade partners like Canada and Mexico have these taxes.  But the United States has an income tax structure so it’s completely different.”

Tantillo says through value-added tax, many countries tax all imported goods coming in, and they use the revenue to give a rebate to their own manufacturers that export goods.   “These taxes are not small, 15.5 percent on average and 150 countries have them.” 

Tantillo says that the loss to American companies has been immense.   “In terms of tax assessments that U.S. exports incurred last year through the value-added tax system combined with the rebates that foreign manufacturers got from their governments when they sent products to the U.S., that amounted to a $474 billion disadvantage to U.S. producers.” 

France was the first nation to implement a small value-added tax, in the late 1940′s.  That was two percent. Today the average rate is more than 15 percent and more than 90 percent of U.S. trade is conducted with countries assessing such taxes.

Filed Under: Business, Legislature, News

Job offers for new liberal arts majors: flat

May 15, 2009 By

If you finished school recently and have been looking for work, you probably already know what university officials are telling graduates, that the job market isn’t exactly an easy one right now. University of South Carolina Career Center director Tom Halasz(HA-lahz) says job offers for liberal-arts graduates as a group remain flat.But while the jobless rate in South Carolina has exceeded 11 percent, Halasz points out that the figure is less than half that for college graduates.    “Jobs are available, particularly in technology sectors, in computer science.  Some retail jobs are available, but not across the board.”   

Halasz warns that even though there are some opportunities out there, the jobs may not be in the geographical areas, or the occupations, that students had hoped for.    ”So while this is a very hard job market, we want to be encouraging to our graduates.  There are opportunities there.  They just have to work harder and longer to find them.”

Salary offers are lower. The average offer to a 2009 bachelor’s degree graduate is $48,000, down 2.3 percent from last spring. However engineering degree holders fared best, with a 2.3-percent increase in their average offer, which now stands at more than $58,000. Computer science majors lost 3.6 percent off their average salary, bringing their starting salary offers to almost $58,000. Business majors rose one percent to $47,000 starting salary.

U.S.C. and other  university officials say the career fairs have been attended this school year by considerably fewer companies.

Filed Under: Business, Education, News

SCPRT Director to Congress: Promote business travel

May 15, 2009 By

Parks, Recreation & Tourism Director Chad Prosser told a U.S. Senate panel this week that there needs to be a national approach to promoting tourism to the rest of the world.He says, “The United States is one of the few countries, developed or undeveloped, that does nto have a nationally-coordinated tourism marketing campaign, or organization for that matter. That burden right now falls to the states.”

Prosser says “States and our tourist destinations compete in a global market for travelers, yet states cannot speak for the rest of the nation.”

Tourism is South Carolina’s largest single industry, accounting for 12.6 percent of the state’s total employment and about $17.2 billion in annual sales…and it’s being hit hard. Greenville tourist and hospitality is down 35 percent, says Prosser. He says his agency is seeing many cases of business incentive travel being cancelled in the beach areas.

The state PRT director testified along with the president and CEO of the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority, the chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resort, and the chairman of Travelocity…among other industry leaders.

Prosser says they spent a lot of time discussing the un-intended fallout from bank and car company bailouts,and that is, “corporations and CEO’s and boards are very reluctant to travel at all, because there have been a few abuses and those few abuses have cast a shadow over all business travel. So you have a lot of decisions being made because of the public opinion issue, instead of the business case, to cancel meetings.”

That is something, says Prosser, that does not require any funding. Instead, it requires government leadership to be careful how they talk about business travel…

“To give some guidelines so that the corporations and CEOs feel comfortable, because right now, in the uncertainty, they’re just deciding not to travel or hold meetings at all because they are afraid of the public criticism,” says Prosser.

Prosser and tourist industry leaders spoke on behalf of the U-S Senate proposed “Travel Promotion Act” that asks for a public-private partnership for a campaign to promote American tourism. Prosser says it would level the playing field for the U-S in international tourism.

It was Prosser’s second appearance before the Senate since his appointment to SCPRT by Gov. Mark Sanford in 2003.

Filed Under: Business, Economy, News

Wilson says S.C. to lead nuclear energy renaissance

May 15, 2009 By

Second District Congressman Joe Wilson says the American Conservation and Clean Energy Independence Act he introduced in the U.S. House on May fifth along with fellow Republican Tim Murphy and Hawaii Democrat Neil Abercrombie, could be a tremendous boost for South Carolina especially in the nuclear energy field. Wilson says the measure encourages the expansion and development of nuclear power and South Carolina should stand as a leader of a nuclear power renaissance in this country.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Economy, Legislature, News

SC homeless shelters overcrowding

May 15, 2009 By

On Thursday, May 15, Anita Tedder’s dead body was found in Marion Square of Downtown Charleston. Tedder was homeless and often stayed at Crisis Ministries, Charleston’s largest homeless shelter. A day later, State Representative Wendell Gilliard of District 111, who has introduced a resolution at the statehouse to deal with the issue, spoke with community leaders in North Charleston.

“Each and every one of us in this room are just a fixed step from being homeless and I’ll lead the crowd, I’ll tell anybody that, and when we realize that, then it tells us we need to do something about it,” says Gilliard.

Gilliard says his proposed law addresses two things:

“Number one, in the resolution I asked that we need to take a count in the state of South Carolina, as how many homeless people there are in the state. Number two, I also asked that we ascertain whether the facilities are adequate enough to handle the influx of people here in the state,” says Gilliard.

Gilliard says the latest case of one homeless finding another in Marion Square raises the question of overcrowding at the shelters. According to Crisis Ministries Director Stacey Denaux they are at full capacity every night.

“We really work to move people out as quickly as we can, so that those that are new to being homeless can move in. So, we’re really focused on moving people out and back in to self-sufficiency as opposed to continue to warehousing people,” says Denaux.

Gilliard says it’s places like Crisis Ministries and other shelters around the state that show in the current economic downturn, homelessness will get worse if something is not done.

“People we do have a problem. Some things some people don’t like to talk about, what we call as reference as being taboo and when I find people who are trying to address these issues, I’m drawn to them,” says Gilliard.

Gilliard says statehouse officials have their priorities mixed up, and he says it’s time to present new resolutions that pertain to the people, like Tedder. Charleston County Deputy Coroner Dottie Lindsay says the cause of death is still under investigation and there were no signs of trauma.

Filed Under: Economy, News, Politics & Government
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