Playing politics with property taxes in South Carolina

 

February 11, 2006 – On February 8^th 2006 the South Carolina House of Representatives passed bill H 4449.  H 4449 is meant to deliver property tax relief to the residents of South Carolina.  Truth be told, H 4449 is not worth the paper it’s printing on.  Regardless of this fact, nearly seventy-five percent of the SC House of Representatives voted in favor of H 4449 even though they knew it does not have even the slightest chance of passing in the South Carolina Senate.  Once South Carolina voters understand why the house pulled this publicity stunt, they should do everything in their power to ensure that all incumbents that voted for H 4449 lose their bids for re-election in November 2006. 

 

Why did the house pass such a worthless bill?  They did it because all house members are up for re-election in November 2006, while state senators are not, that’s why!  With the house having already passed a property tax relief bill, house members can campaign on the fact that they voted for property tax reform, even though it will not pass in the senate.  State senators are not up for re-election until 2008, so they are not compelled to play politics with property taxes. 

 

Beyond the shameful conduct of legislators that are more concerned with getting re-elected than dealing with property taxes, South Carolinians need to understand that none of the current legislators in both the house or the senate will get the job done when it comes to property taxes because none are speaking about eliminating all property taxes on every piece of personal and commercial property in South Carolina.  At best, the current cast of characters in Columbia are masterminding elaborate tax swaps with no assurances in place that in just a few years from now, South Carolina will have an 8 cent sales tax plus property taxes that will creep back up to the levels they are at currently, if not even higher!

 

Furthermore, with all the hype in South Carolina over property tax relief, has anybody heard any politician in Columbia speak of reducing the size of state government rather than swapping taxes?  Of course you have not.  Only Libertarians support the total elimination of all property tax and income tax in South Carolina.   How?  That’s simple.  Libertarians believe in government that shouldn’t come before the people.  Government’s needs and interests should not outweigh yours and mine.  The only legitimate tax is a sales tax.  There is no other tax that is principled tax. 

 

Democrats and Republicans in Columbia scoff at the idea that the state government should or could run on sales tax revenues only.  Ask any one of them and they’ll cry that the state sales tax would have to be twenty cents in order to run the state government!  Suggest that if that be the case, it might be an indication that the state government is too big, and that maybe if the state stopped intruding into the people’s lives with all of its victimless crime laws and wasteful governmental bureaucracies that interfere with free markets, it could get along just fine without denying the people the right to own property and enjoy all the fruits of their labor, and they’ll look at you like you’re the crazy one!

 

Wrenching the power and control over the people that government currently enjoys by taxing property and income, historically, is never accomplished peacefully.  After all, our founding father went to war with their government over a three-cent tax on a pound of tea.  How much longer should the people of South Carolina wait for its state and federal government to become right sized once again?  When will we decide what the government gets from us, instead of it deciding what it will allow us to have?  It’s time for the people to decide what they want – a tax revolution or a tax tyranny.  With the crap the SC House of Representatives just pulled, its time to fight back.  It’s our property – not the state government’s.  It’s our labor, our paycheck, and our wages – not the elected elite’s. 

 

Call it what you will – but I call property tax and income tax, stealing, and those who legislate it, contemptible.  The Democrats and Republicans in Columbia are not going to deliver meaningful, permanent property tax relief because they lack the backbone to really do what needs to be done, and that’s drastically reduce the size and scope of the state government, by leaving the people alone.  In the words of John F. Kennedy, “Those who make peaceful change impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”  That’s just about where South Carolinians as well as our fellow Americans have been driven to by the overbearing weight produced by the accumulative effect of out-of-control local, state, and federal government coupled with overzealous law enforcement that knows no rules – the breaking point.  Think about that before you vote for the two-party juggernaut, or, as I like to call it, the noose knot, come Election Day! 

Freelance writer / author, Ed Haas, is the editor and columnist for the Muckraker Report.  Get smart.  Read the Muckraker Report.  [http://teamliberty.net]  To learn more about Ed’s current and previous work, visit Crafting Prose.  [http://craftingprose.com]