The South Carolina Association of Taxpayers held it’s 16thAnnual Legislative Luncheon on March 7th, 2012. The luncheon is held annually to honor the legislators and organizations that have protected and served the taxpayers and citizens of South Carolina. President Don Weaver welcomed all and dedicated the luncheon to the memory of Jim Keasler [Greenville, Vice President SCAT], who passed recently, for all of his tireless efforts on behalf of South Carolina taxpayers. Jim selflessly devoted his life to promote less spending and more accountability in S.C. government. Jim’s wife Pat and son Colton were on hand in his honor. Also in attendance were David James, Mark Johnson and Stephanie Hale, officers of SCAT.
The featured recipient this year was Gov. Nikki Haley for Pension reform and the first Executive budget which was fiscally restrained. Gov. Haley’s remarks to the members and guests were directed more to the legislature with which she expressed “disappointment with the writers of the budget not including over $140,000,000 in tax cuts. I’m not going to stand by and continue to say I am the proud governor of a Republican state when I’ve got a Republican legislature that just doesn’t know how to act like one. Enough is enough. At what point can I go face any state in the country and say we have a Republican House and we have a Republican Senate but we can’t get tax reform in this state. Something is very wrong. It doesn’t matter if you have the ‘R’ or ‘D’ behind your name. What matters is you have to care about the taxpayers, you have to understand we will never create jobs in this state as long as we tax people to death.”
Legislators receiving Friend of the Taxpayers Awards were: Senators Kevin Bryant, John Courson, Shane Martin and Danny Verdin for their work and No Vote against the I-95 Authority issue. Representative Jim Battle was recognized for his work in opposition to cigarette tax hikes and for Marion County School District consolidation. All of the recipients were very pleased with their awards and justifiably proud that their work for the taxpayers was not going unnoticed.
S.C. Superintendent of Education Mick Zais was honored for his direct action in refusing to accept federal funds.
The SCAT Mission from their official website: Since 1982 we have been gathering information about state taxes and spending, and delivering it to our members, to state government officials and to the public.We are an independent, privately funded research group whose purpose is to encourage government to work more efficiently.We study the way South Carolina Officials spend money and formulate tax policies. We keep track of bills being considered by the Legislature that relate to fiscal policy, and urge lawmakers to either support or oppose them.
For More Information concerning SCAT: http://scatsc.org/index.htm.
