Our weekly Top Five feature offers big stories or views from the past week with policy and legislative implications:
- Millions of bees killed in Dorchester County, The New York Times, Sept. 2, 2016.
Over the last few days, this story has grown from local to national coverage. From a policy perspective, this bee-killing error of unintended consequences suggests that lawmakers might want to look at regulations about pesticides and insect control to ensure that local and state governments don’t do anything stupid again to hurt already-vulnerable bee populations which farmers need to pollinate crops.
- Non-union workers lose billions in wages, Economic Policy Institute, Aug. 30, 2016
This new report highlights how pay for private-sector, non-unionized workers — higher in anti-union states like South Carolina — has been stagnant over the past 35 years. The impact: Real wages are substantially lower than three decades ago. Unions have declined some in South Carolina, but the importance of the report isn’t as much about unions as it is about wages. Maybe if South Carolina weren’t so blindly opposed to unions, real wages would go up.
- Why indexing income taxes for inflation matters, Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, August 2016
“All of us experience the effects of inflation as the price of the goods and services we buy gradually goes up over time. Fortunately, as the cost of living goes up, our incomes often tend to rise as well in order to keep pace. But many state tax systems are not designed to take account of inflation. The result is that income taxes often grow faster than incomes—even though lawmakers haven’t actually passed any laws to make this happen. Some lawmakers have responded to this “hidden tax hike” by indexing their income taxes for inflation. This policy brief explains how indexing works and evaluates its impact on tax adequacy and fairness.”
- A look at a 21st Century tax code for Nebraska, Tax Foundation, Aug. 18, 2016
South Carolina leaders looking at tax reform really might want to take a look at this proposal on reforming Nebraska’s tax code. The conclusion drawn here may reflect some of the lessons in this document:
- That the current tax code needs more flexibility.
- That the state’s personal income tax disadvantages many taxpayers.
- That the sales tax base needs to be expanded to include services .
- That the corporate income tax needs to be reformed.
- And that tax reform could change marginal rates, promote revenue stability, boost equity and enhance tax neutrality.
- State losing over lottery scholarships, The Post and Courier, Aug. 27, 2016
This story highlights how the General Assembly has had to subsidize lottery scholarships to the tune of $1 billion over the last 14 years. From a policy perspective, this means lawmakers might want to reconsider how much it pays out in the lottery so that it doesn’t have to rob the General Fund to pay for scholarships.
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We Can Do Better, South Carolina!