California Governor Gavin Newsom’s (D) trip to South Carolina this week garnered a great deal of media attention. In a new column published today on Forbes.com, ATR’s Patrick Gleason notes that during Newsom’s numerous interactions with reporters in the Palmetto State, the 2028 presidential prospect was never asked to explain why he thinks California has lost so many residents to South Carolina and other red states during his time in office.
Some key points from the article:
~ South Carolina topped the U-Haul Growth Index for the first time ever last year, meaning it was the number one destination from one-way movers who used U-Haul.
~ California experienced the greatest net loss of do-it-yourself movers in U-Haul equipment and ranks 50th for the fifth consecutive year.
~ According to Census data, South Carolina had the nation’s highest rate of population growth through domestic migration in 2024, while California once again lost population due to net domestic outmigration.
Gleason writes that “South Carolina and California’s contrasting approaches to public policy and governance are instructive, particularly to the extent that they are indicative of the ideologies and preferences that differentiate the two major political parties.”
Some key points from the article about those contrasts:
~ South Carolina has a top marginal income tax rate of 6.2% that will fall to 6% at the end of 2025, down from 7% only three years ago.
~ South Carolina’s top rate is less than half of California’s 13.3% top marginal income tax rate, which is the nation’s highest.
~ Though South Carolina’s top income tax rate is high relative to neighboring states, legislators in Columbia are working to make sure that won’t be the case much longer
~ The South Carolina House approved tax reform legislation this spring that will move the state to a 1.99% flat tax in the next five years and then fully phase it out over the subsequent five years. The South Carolina Senate will take up that reform in January.
~ Not only is income tax relief not on the agenda, Gavin Newsom was the only governor in the country to raise income taxes on businesses during the depths of the pandemic-driven economic downturn of 2020. Newsom did, however, recently approve tax breaks for movie producers.
To read Gleason’s article in its entirety, click here.
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: Patrick Gleason
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