Before he left Anderson on Tuesday
afternoon, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford took time to pitch
his tax plan, pose with a baby and taste his hosts’ green
punch before he hit the road again with a piece of cake in
hand.
In one of seven visits to small businesses around the state
to tout his plan to cut the income and increase cigarette
taxes, Gov. Sanford visited Electric City Signs & Neon,
using a fabrication area as his lecture hall.
The governor told onlookers at the shop on the S.C. 28
Bypass he is confident his economic stimulus plan can make its
way through the legislature, despite resistance from
legislators in his own party.
"I’m actually encouraged by the way things stand," he said.
His proposal includes a gradual reduction in the state
income tax from 7 percent to 5 percent over the next 15 years,
paired with a 53-cent increase in tobacco tax, which would
also draw federal matching funds.
"We think good things will come not just because we think
good things would come but because that’s what the numbers
show," he said, referring to higher economic growth rates
among states that had decreased their income tax versus those
that raised it.
Gov. Sanford is touting the package as a kind of panacea
for the state’s economic crisis: a boost to personal income,
economic growth, small business stimulus, the solution to the
Medicaid crisis and a way to mitigate high health insurance
premiums.
"I think this is an idea with a couple of wins," he said
Tuesday.
Most of those "wins" would benefit small businesses like
Electric City Signs and Neon, he said.
But a number of legislators, particularly in the state
House of Representatives, appear to see the governor’s plan as
more fish oil than cure-all.
"I don’t think cutting the income tax right now is a good
idea with the things we’ve got going," Rep. Ronny Townsend,
R-Anderson, said Tuesday.
After all is said and done, a compromise package is likely
to arrive at the Governor’s desk, Rep. Townsend said.
After answering questions on the fabrication floor at
Electric City Signs & Neon, the governor posed for photos
and headed for North Augusta to visit a concrete company.
The members of the Ridgeway family, who own and operate the
business, were still getting over their disbelief at the
visit.
When Chris Drummond, the governor’s communication director,
called Patti Ridgeway last week about the visit, she thought
it was a prank call. Staff at the Anderson Area Chamber of
Commerce checked it out, and told her it was for real.
Like any good host, she said, "We did come over here and
clean like crazy."
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