By Lindsay Street, Statehouse correspondent | State lawmakers will need to decide whether to align the state’s tax code with the federal government’s before the 2019 session begins, according to the state’s top tax chief Hartley Powell.
During a Senate Finance Subcommittee on Conformity hearing on Wednesday, Powell urged for legislators to approve “conformity,” which saves taxpayers time and money, but also aids in compliance and won’t negatively impact state revenues. The House and the Senate ended the session with separate bills, both of which aligned the state’s tax code to the federal code with slight modifications to avoid a tax increase.
Powell said delaying legislative action until January could cause significant delays for those residents looking to file taxes early, saying it would “create a chaotic situation for South Carolina taxpayers.”
Lawmakers are expected to return in September to address Gov. Henry McMaster’s vetoes, but it’s unclear whether the subcommittee will be able to finish its work before that time.
Lawmakers on the subcommittee appeared to agree with Powell on moving forward quickly.
“We definitely need to this just as quick as possible if we can get the legislature back in session,” said Sen. Ronnie Cromer, R-Lexington.
Subcommittee leader Sen. Thomas Alexander, R-Oconee, said the group “understands the importance of moving forward with this in a timely manner.”
The next meeting for the subcommittee has not been scheduled as of today.
Previously, lawmakers have floated tying in tax conformity with tax reform, but Powell cautioned against that Wednesday, saying he didn’t want debate on tax reform to further delay conformity.
Read our previous coverage on tax conformity here:
- How state responds to federal tax overhaul will have big impact;
- House bill to conform tax code is more progressive;
- Lawmakers look reforming the tax code along with conformity; and,
- Legislators mum on possible unintended tax hike.
Here’s what else happened this week:
Tariff impact. Fairfield County will lose yet another manufacturer with the demise of Element TV in Winnsboro. The company blamed President Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods, which raised the price of its manufacturing components. It will lay off 126 employees. Gov. Henry McMaster called the plant’s closure “a sad moment.” In 2017, Fairfield County already saw a textile mill close and the loss of thousands of jobs at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Plant in 2017.
Four more say no to snow days. The state Education Oversight Commission approved four additional school districts this week to take part in an eLearning pilot program that has children do online learning when they can’t make it into school due to inclement weather. The five school districts taking part in the program are: Anderson 5; Kershaw; Pickens; Spartanburg 1 and Spartanburg 7.
Racial gap in housing. The new report from the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University showed home ownership by young adults and blacks are at 30-year lows. An NPR story focused on the racial gap of homeownership in the report: While about 72 percent of white people are homeowners, only 43 percent of blacks are homeowners. The racial gap varies widely on geography, however. An excerpt:
“When broken down by city, some places do worse than others. Minneapolis, for instance, ranks the worst in the country with a homeownership gap of 50 percent. Albany, N.Y., and Salisbury, Md., are not far behind. Charleston, S.C., and Austin, Texas, are around 20 percent.”
New job. Fred Jones of Walterboro, a former staffer for U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, is the new director of government relations for the Southern Education Foundation, based in Atlanta. More.
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