Could Carolinas Cooperate on Tax Reform?
On December 29, John Steinberger from the South Carolina FairTax organization joined the PunditHouse guys on their weekly segment with WBT radio’s Pete Kaliner. John discussed his post introducing the South Carolina FairTax Act.
The following day, Pete Kaliner conducted an interview with North Carolina’s soon-to-be Speaker of the House, Thom Tillis. A portion of the discussion focused on taxes and Pete referenced the previous day’s discussion on the FairTax.
The following is a rough transcription from that interview. The audio can be heard HERE.
20:00 Thom Tillis – “The reason why broadening the base is a problem is you really want to get to a consumption… a sales tax or a consumption oriented…[starting thought over] If somebody makes the decision to buy something perhaps you could set a reasonable tax on it versus if they choose to produce something. The challenge is you don’t want to tax inputs to business so that you’re layering costs on before a business actually provides an end product. So the complexity comes in how do I make sure I get to that last point of consumption and that’s where the real work is.”
20:35 Pete Kaliner – “SC is running a bill for a FairTax to be implemented in their state based on pure consumption; new goods, uh, and everything else goes away. That’s going to harm North Carolina’s ability to compete with that, wouldn’t it?”
20:46 Thom Tillis – “I think it’s great. I wish them the best of luck. Because I think that, uh, I’m an unabashed free market person and I think that to the extent that SC creates a more competitive environment that it provides us with even … We’ve already got a burning platform in terms of our tax and regulatory environment.”
21:07 Thom Tillis – “If they crack that nut then we better get serious about reducing our tax burden or they will leave us in the dust.”
John Steinberger learned of this follow-up interview and took the opportunity at a Town Hall meeting conducted by South Carolina’s Speaker of the House, Bobby Harrell, to mention the position taken by Tillis.
Harrell’s response, as seen in the video below, indicated an interest in speaking with his North Carolina counterpart and suggested that engaging multiple states in the discussion at the same time would be helpful and make the conversation “easier”.
As intriguing an idea as the SC FairTax act is, the idea of creating a block of states in the South that would follow the same formula is even more so. It could usher forward an era of economic growth and partnership while simultaneously sending a message to Washington, DC that the people are ready for real change.
To that end, according to this story in today’s New York Times, even the IRS’s own taxpayer advocate, Nina Olsen, has issued a “sweeping criticism” of federal tax policy in her annual report to Congress.
If change is to happen, perhaps the Carolinas can help lead the way.
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