The campaigns of Democrat Tommy Moore and Republican Gov. Mark Sanford sparred Thursday over a Sanford ad crediting the governor with the state's first-ever "personal" income tax cut.

Moore's spokeswoman, Karen Gutmann, called it "a blatant, shameless falsehood" because the cut involved small businesses, not the mass of individual filers.

Sanford's campaign stood by the phrasing.

The dispute revolved around whether a tax cut for small businesses is a "personal" income tax reduction.

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The 2005 tax cut claimed by Sanford covered small businesses by phasing in a reduction of their top rate from 7 percent to 5 percent, putting their tax status at parity with corporations.

"It is an individual income tax reduction because it's income that people claim on their individual income taxes as pass-through income from their businesses," said Catherine Reed, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Revenue.

In 1989, under Republican Gov. Carroll Campbell, legislation was enacted that reduced the lowest marginal individual income tax rate, Reed said.

But Gutmann said, "Ask any working person, the top personal income tax rate has not been lowered. It was 7 percent when (Sanford) took office and it's 7 percent now. The business tax rate, however, was lowered, a fact that Tommy Moore knows very well, since he introduced the amendment that resulted in that success."

Jason Miller, Sanford's campaign manager, said the 2005 change "was the first time that the top marginal rates were cut."

Miller added, "The political spin coming out of Tommy Moore's campaign is blinding" and criticized Moore for proposing "the largest tax increase in state history," referring to a proposed sales tax increase.

In the Sanford ad, which began airing this week, an announcer says, "Personal income taxes cut for the first time ever."

The campaign's supporting data points to "the top marginal personal income tax rate, under which small businesses are taxed, was reduced for the first time -- ever by Gov. Sanford in 2005 ... from 7 percent to 5 percent."

Miller said the 2005 tax cut was a reduction in the personal income tax rate under which small businesses, but not big corporations, are taxed. It covered partnerships, limited liability corporations, and S-corporations, "and for them was a cut in their personal income tax."

Campbell, who died last year, cited the 1989 tax cut as one of the highlights of his administration in an interview at the close of the legislative session, six months before his second and final term ended.

"I go out with no regrets whatsoever," he said. "The fact is, we did as much as we could, and the government's restructured, the taxes are cut, the businesses are coming in, the education system has been changed, so I leave with a certain amount of pride."