South-Carolina
South Carolina Lawmakers Reach Deal To Cut Income Tax
Governors and lawmakers in 14 states enacted revenue tax reduction final 12 months and eight states have already authorized revenue tax cuts up to now this 12 months. South Carolina is now poised to be the following state whose residents obtain revenue tax reduction. The revenue tax reduce anticipated to hit Governor Henry McMaster’s (R-S.C.) desk this month, other than permitting folks to maintain extra of their paychecks, will assist South Carolina keep away from falling additional behind neighboring states the place quite a few revenue tax cuts have been authorized over the previous decade and as just lately as final month.
Subsequent door to South Carolina, due to a invoice just lately signed by Governor Brian Kemp (R-Ga.), Georgia residents will quickly see their state revenue tax fee drop from 5.75% to a flat 4.99%. In the meantime throughout South Carolina’s different border, North Carolina’s flat revenue tax fell from 5.25% to 4.99% on the primary day of 2022. The Tar Heel State’s revenue tax fee is scheduled to drop once more to three.99% in 2026.
Although North Carolina residents just lately acquired one other tax reduce, lawmakers in Raleigh acknowledge there may be nonetheless constituent demand for additional revenue tax reduction. Polling launched by the Heart for American Concepts and the GOPAC Training Fund on June 8 discovered widespread help for a proposal to additional cut back North Carolina’s revenue tax fee to 2.5% by 2030. The brand new polling exhibits help for shifting to a 2.5% revenue tax fee starting from 74% to 77% within the 4 aggressive state legislative districts that had been surveyed. By passing laws to maneuver to a 2.5% flat tax, North Carolina legislators would match the brand new revenue tax fee that Arizona is heading to due to tax reform enacted by Governor Doug Ducey (R), which was shepherded by means of a legislature with slim majorities by Senator J.D. Mesnard (R) and Home Majority Chief Ben Toma (R).
Many members of the South Carolina Legislature acknowledge in the event that they don’t get revenue tax reduction enacted this 12 months and enhance upon it in subsequent classes, they’re more likely to see the Palmetto State’s tax drawback relative to neighboring states proceed to develop. As in North Carolina, latest polling signifies there may be quite a lot of help for state revenue tax reduction in South Carolina. A ballot launched by the South Carolina Coverage Council on June 4 discovered 77% of respondents imagine it is very important cut back the state revenue tax, with 54% saying state revenue tax fee discount is essential.
The excellent news for South Carolinians who need to see the state revenue tax fee reduce, due to the efforts of legislators in Columbia, is that South Carolina is now on the verge of being the following place the place revenue tax reduction is enacted in 2022. After years of being surrounded by states chopping revenue taxes whereas charges in South Carolina remained unchanged, South Carolinians are on the cusp of receiving wanted revenue tax reduction.
“We now have been calling for chopping the South’s highest marginal particular person revenue tax fee since our founding,” mentioned Dr. Oran Smith of Palmetto Promise Institute. “We kicked it up a notch this 12 months by releasing a video through the Governor’s State of the State as he known as for the reduce. We’re hopeful that earlier than the month is out that ugly ‘7’ on the Tax Basis map goes away for good!”
With a high fee of seven%, South Carolina is presently dwelling to the very best revenue tax fee in all the southeastern United States. For these working to draw extra jobs, funding, and folks to South Carolina, that’s a distinction that should stop. In an effort to vary that, the South Carolina Home and Senate each handed revenue tax reduction payments with unanimous majorities this spring. Convention committee members have since been figuring out the variations between the 2 proposals.
There are significant variations between the Home and Senate revenue tax payments in South Carolina that must be labored out. Many imagine there are distinctive features to proposals from every chamber that, if mixed, would result in essentially the most optimistic consequence for taxpayers.
The Home-passed revenue tax reduction invoice, which takes South Carolina’s high revenue tax fee from 7% to six% over 5 years, doesn’t reduce the highest fee as a lot because the Senate-passed invoice, which brings that fee down to five.7% instantly. Whereas the Senate handed a bigger high fee reduce, the Home simplified the revenue tax code in a means the Senate invoice doesn’t. The Home-passed revenue tax reduce strikes the state from 4 to 2 revenue tax brackets, collapsing the underside three brackets right into a single bracket taxed at 3%.
Many hoped the bigger high fee reduce authorized by the Senate can be mixed with the consolidation of decrease brackets within the Home-passed tax plan to provide a ultimate product that adopts the optimum elements from each plans. As an alternative, it was reported on Friday, June 10 that the convention committee goes with the Home-passed fee discount and is coupling that with a $1 billion rebate to taxpayers. Below this compromise, which is predicted to be voted on by South Carolina lawmakers within the coming week, the highest revenue tax fee will drop instantly to six.5% after which be phased down to six% over the following 5 years. The underside two brackets will probably be consolidated right into a 3% bracket.
“We now have made substantial investments in South Carolina,” mentioned Home Speaker Murrell Smith (R). “A billion in reserves, $1 billion in roads and $2 billion in tax reduction.”
Enactment of an revenue tax reduce this 12 months will present wanted reduction to South Carolina households, lots of whom are struggling amid the very best inflation in 4 many years. Along with permitting households to maintain extra of their hard-earned revenue, the revenue tax reduction quickly to obtain ultimate passage from South Carolina lawmakers will even profit small companies, most of whom file underneath the non-public revenue tax system.
In accordance with IRS information, greater than 514,000 small enterprise homeowners file underneath the person revenue tax system in South Carolina. These employers will understand a lift of their job creating and sustaining capability after the pending revenue tax reduce is signed by Governor McMaster. That’s the reason chopping the highest private revenue tax fee, which will get attacked by opponents as a giveaway to the wealthy, in apply expands the capability of small companies to rent new employees and provides present staff raises.
The tax reduce nearing Governor McMaster’s desk will trigger South Carolina’s high revenue tax fee to fall beneath 7% for the primary time since that fee’s adoption in 1959. That mentioned, South Carolina will nonetheless have the very best revenue tax fee within the area even after Governor McMaster indicators the revenue tax reduce anticipated to go on June 15. Even when the Senate’s bigger high fee reduce had been included within the ultimate bundle, South Carolina would nonetheless have had the very best revenue tax fee within the southeast. That’s the reason key legislators have already made clear that is only a first step and that tax reform must be on the agenda in future classes if South Carolina’s tax code is to be made extra aggressive.
The revenue tax reduction deal reached between the South Carolina Home and Senate caps off a exceptional legislative session within the Palmetto State. Between approval of lengthy sought revenue tax reduction and passage of landmark laws to create schooling scholarship accounts that may present hundreds of youngsters entry to extra faculties, South Carolina lawmakers are near wrapping up enterprise on what’s poised to be a consequential legislative session that may present a lot fodder for dialogue on the 2022 marketing campaign path and past.
South-Carolina
Richard Moore’s final words before South Carolina execution
South Carolina inmate Richard Moore was executed by lethal injection on Friday for the 1999 murder of a convenience store clerk, despite widespread appeals for clemency.
Moore was the second person to be executed in the state in just over a month after a 13-year pause, prompted by difficulty obtaining drugs for its lethal injection protocol. The 59-year-old was pronounced dead at 6:24 p.m. after Governor Henry McMaster and the Supreme Court denied his request to halt the execution. Two years ago, in discussing Moore’s case, Republican McMaster said he wouldn’t issue a commutation.
As the execution began, Moore was strapped to a gurney, with a blanket covering most of his body. Witnesses said he faced the ceiling with his eyes closed as the lethal drug entered his body, before taking between four and six deep gasping breaths, The State reported.
Witnesses included two family members of James Mahoney, Moore’s lawyer, Lindsey Vann, his spiritual adviser, three journalists, an official from the South Carolina Department of Corrections, a South Carolina Law Enforcement Division agent and Spartanburg Solicitor Barry Barnette, who played a role in prosecuting Moore in 2001. Barnette and members of Mahoney’s family stared stoically ahead as Moore took his last breaths, according to The State. Outside, roughly 40 people, including an attorney who represented Moore, opponents of the death penalty and members of the clergy held a prayer vigil.
In a final statement, which was read at a news conference, Moore said: “To the family of Mr. James Mahoney, I am deeply sorry for the pain and sorrow I cause you all. To my children and granddaughters, I love you and am so proud of you. Thank you for the joy you have brought to my life.
“To all of my family and friends — new and old — thank you for you love and support.”
His final meal was steak cooked medium, fried catfish and shrimp, scalloped potatoes, green peas, broccoli with cheese, sweet potato pie, German chocolate cake and grape juice.
Moore was the last person remaining on South Carolina’s death row to be convicted by a jury with no Black members, his defense attorneys say. He is also believed to be the only person in the history of South Carolina’s death penalty executed for an armed robbery who did not bring the fatal weapon to the scene.
Moore was found guilty of killing convenience store clerk Mahoney during a 1999 robbery in Spartanburg County. According to prosecutors, Moore entered the store without a weapon and managed to wrestle away Mahoney’s handgun, which he drew after getting into an altercation with Moore because he was 12 cents short. Mahoney then reached for a second firearm, shooting Moore in the arm, but Moore responded by fatally shooting Mahoney in the head. Prosecutors said Moore then fled the scene with a bag containing over $1,400 in cash.
Prosecutors accused Moore of robbing the store to fund his crack addiction. However, over the years, Moore maintained that he was there to buy beer and cigarettes. In 2001, he was sentenced to death.
Unsuccessful Appeals
Moore appealed his sentence several times, most recently on the basis that prosecutors impermissibly struck two Black jurors because of their race in his 2001 murder case, which the state denied. In 1986, the Supreme Court ruled that prosecutors cannot strike a potential juror based solely on race. If challenged, the state must state a “race-neutral” reason for excluding the candidate.
Trey Gowdy – a prosecutor in Moore’s case who later served four terms as a Republican congressman – told the judge one Black jury candidate was struck primarily for allegedly hiding her criminal record during questioning, while another was excluded because their son had been convicted of murder. Gowdy noted that a white juror with a similar family situation had also been removed. Additionally, he pointed out that the final jury included a Hispanic member.
But in a brief filed Tuesday with the Supreme Court, the South Carolina attorney general argued it was too late for Moore to raise the issue of jurors’ race because it had not been mentioned in earlier appeals. They argued Moore killed Mahoney in self-defense.
His appeals gained national attention, with more than 20 people – including two jurors, the judge from Moore’s original trial and a former director of the state prison system – asking McMaster to spare Moore’s life by granting him clemency, The Associated Press reported.
Moore’s son, Lyndall, who was four when his father was charged, also argued that his father deserved mercy.
“He’s not some sort of monster,” Lyndall told The State. “He’s just a guy who struggled, but always a guy with a good heart, you know, a normal guy trying to be a good father.”
In prison, Moore reportedly became a devout Christian, dedicated himself to mentoring other inmates and took up painting. He also encouraged his children to avoid his own missteps.
Former Department of Corrections Director Jon Ozmint described Moore as a “reliable, consistent force for good on death row,” according to The State, and argued that commuting Moore’s sentence could serve as a powerful example of redemption. Ozmint added: “Perhaps the most compelling reason to commute Richard’s sentence is precisely because he is at peace with whatever decision you reach.”
South-Carolina
Mica Miller case: FBI conducts search of South Carolina pastor husband's home
This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
The FBI searched the home of the South Carolina pastor whose wife, Mica Miller, died by suicide in April.
FBI spokesperson Kevin Wheeler confirmed to Fox News that they conducted an authorized search at the home of John-Paul Miller in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina on Friday.
Local outlet Fox Carolina reported that “evidence response teams” were seen going inside the home, wearing gloves.
SC PASTOR’S WIFE MICA MILLER TOLD POLICE SHE WAS BEING TRACKED BEFORE HER SUICIDE: DOCS
The Millers’ friend, Alicia Young, told Fox News Digital that at least 25 FBI agents were at John-Paul’s home for five hours collecting evidence. The evidence collection included removing fingerprints off the doors.
Young said that John-Paul had left the residence just two minutes prior to FBI agents arriving “and they found and served him at Starbucks.”
“He was not allowed to go to his house while they were there, and he is in their custody for questioning,” she said.
MICA MILLER 911 CALL REVEALS FINAL MOMENTS BEFORE HER DEATH AS NC AUTHORITIES CHALLENGE ‘CONSPIRACY THEORIES’
Fox News Digital has reached out to the FBI for comment.
Mica, 30, was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in North Carolina’s Lumber River State Park, the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office previously confirmed.
The case received national attention, with the couple’s strained relationship being brought to the forefront. The pair was separated, and Mica filed for divorce two days before she died, according to FOX 8 Greensboro.
SOUTH CAROLINA WOMAN MICA MILLER’S HUSBAND SAYS HE TRIED TO ‘RAISE HER FROM THE DEAD’ DURING EULOGY
Robeson County Sheriff’s Office investigators also determined that John-Paul “and a female that he is allegedly romantically involved with” were not in Robeson County at the time of Mica’s death.
“Investigators learned through interviews that John Paul Miller was at an athletic event in Charleston on the day of Mica Miller’s death. John Miller’s vehicle was observed traveling on Hwy 17 Bypass, in Horry County at 2:22 pm on April 27, 2024,” the sheriff’s office said in a press release. “The investigation confirmed that John Miller was accompanied while traveling to and from the event in Charleston, SC.”
Local authorities have adamantly pushed back against claims that Mica’s death was a homicide, saying evidence of a suicide was “clear and convincing.”
In a statement to Fox News Digital in July, Mica’s sisters said that their sister was “in the middle of war.”
“Mica was in the fight for her life. She was in the middle of war,” Mica’s sister, Anna Francis, said. “She was ready to go to war.”
CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“We would like someone else to take over or take another look to see what really happened. Because we don’t believe that everything that happened has come out,” Mica’s sister, Destinee Barrientos, said.
Fox News has reached out to John-Pauls’ attorney for comment.
South-Carolina
Nearly $1B in school bonds is on the ballot in Lancaster, Chester and York counties
Voters in three of South Carolina’s Charlotte metro counties will decide the fate of nearly $1 billion in school bond referendums this election. School districts in Lancaster, Chester, and York counties are looking to expand capacity and enhance security features in campus buildings.
Meanwhile voters in Chesterfield County are being asked to renew the county school district’s penny sales tax to help fund upgrades to athletic facilities, general renovations, and expanded classroom and cafeteria spaces.
Lancaster
The largest of the referendums on the ballot is in Lancaster, where the county school district is seeking $588.15 million, mostly for the construction of four new school buildings. The district serves almost 16,000 students in 22 schools; it is looking to add an elementary school and a high school to fast-growing Indian Land (which would use $315.6 million of the bond funds); a new elementary school in Lancaster ($113.45 million); and a new elementary school in Kershaw ($95 million).
An additional $37.6 million is earmarked for districtwide facilities upgrades, while $26.5 million would pay for security, safety, and facilities upgrades in the Buford community.
The tax impact on voters, should the referendum pass, would be about $65 per year for every $100,000 of assessed property value of an owner-occupied home, and per every $10,000 of assessed vehicle value. That tax would bump to $92 per year $100,000 of assessed value of non-owner-occupied residential properties.
Chester
In Chester, voters will decide on $227 million that would fund a pair of new high schools and upgrades to another.
The new high schools would replace the current buildings in Chester and Lewisville. The upgrades would be made at Great Falls High School.
The money raised by the referendum would cover most of the costs of the projects. According to information published by the district, the referendum would pay $99.1 million towards the new high school in Chester and $100.15 million towards the new high school in Lewisville. The remaining $16.8 million to complete both projects would be paid for by the district’s capital funds – which would pay for a theater and a gym at each location.
The tax impact, according to the district, would be $230 annually per $100,000 of assessed home value, plus $34.50 for every $10,000 of assessed vehicle value. The owner of a home valued at $100,000 and a vehicle valued at $10,000, therefore, would pay an additional $264.50 per year in taxes, if the bond referendum passes.
That is a big if, however. Chester voters have denied three successive bond referendums, in 2018, 2020, and 2022.
District spokesman Chris Christoff said that following the 2022 referendum, voters stated that they had felt the district was trying “to do a little too much at one time.” In response, the district launched a series of listening sessions this past spring.
“We asked, if we were to pursue a fourth referendum, what would you want to see,” Christoff said.
A follow-up survey asked whether voters understood the capacity, security, and facilities conditions issues in the district. According to the district, about 80% of the roughly 1,000 respondents said they better understood what they would be voting on, which is a scaled-down slate of projects that no longer include athletics expansions or work to the district career center.
If the referendum fails this round, Christoff said, the district will spent about $20 million of its own capital funds to replace the roofs at Great Falls and Chester high schools, plus other funds to buy additional modular classrooms in Lewisville – the fastest-growing area of the school district, he said.
Chester County School District serves about 5,500 students, which is up from about 5,100 students in 2018-19.
York
The smallest referendum on the ballot for Pee Dee voters this election is a $90 million bond that would pay for a new middle school and expansion and renovations to a learning center in York County School District 1, in York.
According to the district, four elementary schools and one middle school are between 80% and 90% capacity in a district that continues to grow along with the Charlotte metro. As of March, almost 2,400 new homes in the City of York are on tap from development plans in place, according to the district
Therefore, the district maintains, a new middle school is needed to meet that growth as elementary students age up.
The district also wants to renovate its Pinckney Street Learning Center/York One Academy to become an early childhood center.
The tax impact on voters would be $36 additional per year for every $100,000 of assessed home value; $54 per year for every $100,000 of assessed value on second or rental properties; and $945 per year for every $1 million of assessed business property value.
-
Movie Reviews1 week ago
Alien Country (2024) – Movie Review
-
Technology1 week ago
OpenAI plans to release its next big AI model by December
-
Health1 week ago
New cervical cancer treatment approach could reduce risk of death by 40%, trial results show
-
Culture1 week ago
Top 45 MLB free agents for 2024-25 with contract predictions, team fits: Will Soto get $600M+?
-
Sports1 week ago
Freddie Freeman's walk-off grand slam gives Dodgers Game 1 World Series win vs. Yankees
-
News6 days ago
Sikh separatist, targeted once for assassination, says India still trying to kill him
-
Culture6 days ago
Freddie Freeman wallops his way into World Series history with walk-off slam that’ll float forever
-
Technology6 days ago
When a Facebook friend request turns into a hacker’s trap