In a Wednesday press conference, South Carolina House Republicans unveiled their agenda for the rest of the year.
The four new items on the House GOP Caucus agenda include sales tax reform, tougher right-to-work laws, shoring up the pension system, and solidifying South Carolina’s status as the ”First in the South” presidential primary.
House Republicans passed all 17 of their agenda items in 2011. Six of those proposals became law last year (including a Voter ID act that was later rejected by the U.S. Justice Department) but the other eleven are still being debated in the Senate.
Harrell said his body will continue to push for the passage of those eleven bills, but will also move on to other proposals. “While there are fewer issues, not as numerous as last year, they are much more comprehensive in scale,” Harrell said.
Legislators still have not filed a specific tax reform bill; although House Majority Leader Kenny Bingham (R-Cayce) said several will be filed in the next few weeks. He said a caucus study group led by Rep. Tommy Stringer (R-Greer) has recommended eliminating nearly two-thirds of South Carolina’s sales tax exemptions, as well as significantly increase the current $300 sales tax cap.
He said that would allow the legislature to lower overall sales tax rates and flatten income tax brackets. Harrell said the tax code changes would be “revenue-neutral,” because it would result in lower tax revenue for the state.
Harrell said he was confident the agenda could pass both the House and Senate, even in an election year– usually a difficult time to make changes to the tax code.
He said he was especially confident about pension reform, “We all know what the problems are. We’ve all seen the reports that tell us what the problems are,” he said, “We just need to roll up our sleeves and get it done.”
Asked why Republicans were waiting until the fifth week to unveil their agenda, Harrell joked, “Quite candidly, because the presidential preference primaries were going on and we figured (reporters) would be off covering them and wouldn’t be here… We could’ve done this in week one or week two.”
