Staff reports | Three bills have been pre-filed in the S.C. General Assembly to end the so-called “tampon tax” by providing an exemption to the state’s 6% sales tax on feminine hygiene products.
While Democrats have pushed the effort for years, state Sen. Katrina Shealy, R-Lexington, and four co-sponsors filed a bill (S. 149) for the exemption earlier this month. In the House, veteran Democratic Rep. Gilda Cobb Hunter of Orangeburg filed a bill for the exemption (H. 3563) as did Easley Republican Rep. Neal Collins with H. 3109.
According to The Post and Courier, the exemption, if passed, would reduce state revenues by about $5.8 million annually, while reducing local taxes by $1.4 million, according to a 2021 analysis.
In other news this week:
S.C. sees double-digit spike in those requesting homelessness aid. The South Carolina Interagency Council of Homelessness released its annual State of Homeless report and revealed that 13,399 people received homeless services, an 18% jump from the year prior.
State DSS to end SNAP emergency allotments at end of month. The S.C. Department of Social Services announced that it will make changes to South Carolina’s access to the federally-approved Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). On Feb. 1, SNAP recipients will go back to receiving their regular monthly benefits.
Schedule announced for Inauguration Day in Columbia. Gov. Henry McMaster is set to take the oath of office next month for the start of the term which will make him the longest-serving governor in state history. It will be the 98th Inauguration ceremony in South Carolina.
Leatherman terminal losing cargo service. One of the two scheduled shipping services plans to move its operations to another part of the Port of Charleston at the end of January as the threat of legal action has pushed it away from the new $1 billion Leatherman Terminal in North Charleston. The decision to split from Leatherman Terminal comes after a national labor board ruling that all work at the Leatherman Terminal must be done by members of the International Longshoremen’s Association dockworkers union. The port has said it will appeal the ruling.
Network outage caused temporary halt on SCDMV transactions. South Carolina DMV branches experienced network outages Wednesday morning. Online transactions and the Blythewood branch, however, were still operational. Systems were restored Wednesday afternoon after a hardware replacement.
S.C. agencies, universities partner to combat addiction. South Carolina’s public health agencies are partnering with three state university research teams to discover the best way to curb addiction of drugs and alcohol. The goal is to find alternative and better ways to improve on the already existing programs across the state to decrease the mortality rate.
Former S.C. Commerce secretary dies at 64. Joe Taylor, former S.C. Commerce Secretary and Columbia councilmember, has passed away at the age of 64. Taylor was best known for helping bring Boeing to North Charleston, marking one of the biggest industrial recruiting coups.
DHEC reports 9,574 Covid cases, 10 deaths. The new data collected from Dec. 18-24 shows an increase of over 1,000 cases since the previous week. Public health officials are urging more Americans to get the latest Covid-19 booster shot. Some 35% of people over the age of 65 have gotten the shot, despite having high death rates among the age group.
Average price of gas drops 5 cents per gallon. For the seventh straight week, gas prices dropped in the Palmetto State with the average price per gallon on Monday at $2.72. That’s 38 cents less per gallon than a month ago.
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