2 SC governor candidates detail different approaches to eliminate state income tax
More than 100 attendees sat at tables with candidate fliers from Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette and Attorney General Alan Wilson at each setting. Fliers from U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman were placed at the center of the tables at the Poinsett Club ahead of a candidate forum for those running for governor.
During the forum in Greenville, two more approaches by Republican candidates for South Carolina governor on how they would eliminate the state income tax that came into focus on the campaign trail.
At the lunch forum hosted by the Upstate Republican Women, four of the five GOP hopefuls answered questions from WYFF news anchor Jane Robelot, while those in attendance ate.
Republican candidates running for governor have been pitching their support to eliminate the state income tax, but approaches to do so have been different. The talking point comes as state lawmakers are working on their own plans to set up a path to eliminate the state income tax.
During the lieutenant governor’s time on the stage, Robelot asked how Evette’s business experience would shape her first 100 days in office.
As part of Evette’s one minute-long response she said she would eliminate the state income tax in her first 100 days. It was a line that received applause from the crowd, and it’s a line she has repeated at least one other time on the trail.
After the event while speaking to reporters, Evette clarified her comment, saying eliminating the state income tax would be a priority she would work on in her first 100 days in office.
She says the state needs to leverage technology to help the state run more efficiently and save the state billions of dollars.
“We cannot hire enough people to outpace our growth,” Evette said. “And if we do, that’s a recipe for disaster.”
“If we could keep growth going, if we could rein in spending, if we can run efficiently, there’s not one silver bullet, but I have the business background and knowledge to be able to get us there,” Evette added.
Evette said she would work on reducing regulations as well in her first 100 days.
Evette told reporters she hasn’t explored the income tax proposal that started in the House last year.
“I’ve been kind of working on what do we need to encompass all together to get it done and keep critical services in place,” Evette said. “And so we’ll see what passes. I mean, I’m glad that every year we have continued to bring it down.”
Alan Wilson wants spending caps
Wilson also said wants to get rid of the state income tax.
“I’m asking you to trust me to do things like eliminate our income tax, reform our property taxes, reform our education system, maintain parental rights at all costs,” Wilson said during the forum.
He went into specifics of how he would eliminate the income tax during an interview after the forum. Wilson said his plan would cap growth in the state budget to inflation and population growth.
For example, if the population indexed to inflation grew by 3%, then government spending would be able to grow by 3% and revenue above that would be used for a tax cut. Any revenue above the cap, would be returned to taxpayers in the form of a tax cut, Wilson said.
Using population growth and inflation would allow the state to account for annual growth in expenses, such as annual increases in pay and other recurring expenses, such as growing Medicaid costs that occur every year to maintain the program. Factoring in population growth would allow state government to account for the need to provide services and increase maintenance as more people move to the state.
Wilson says state government spending over the last 10 years grew by 6.5% while the state’s population indexed by inflation grew by 3.2%.
“We are spending 3.3% faster than we are growing as a state indexed by population,” Wilson said in an interview in Greenville.
“In South Carolina, we don’t have a revenue problem. We have a spending problem,” Wilson added.
Wilson said if the South Carolina had capped the rate of spending to the same rate of population growth with the rate of inflation over the last 10 years, the state could have saved $19.7 billion. His campaign cited calculations by American for Tax Reform and the South Carolina Policy Council.
Wilson said that money could have been returned to taxpayers as a tax cut. Wilson said his plan would be implemented over several years, such as six to 12 years, depending on how aggressive the state wants to be.
“That’s a policy decision we make once we get the law drafted. We can look at the modeling, but at the end of the day, you pay for the income tax (elimination) over a period of time of economic growth, when you allow people to keep more of their money and you cap government spending to the rate of population,” Wilson said.
Wilson said his campaign is looking at how to cut state spending, but wouldn’t discuss specifics yet. Wilson acknowledged revenue needs to come into the state to pay for certain services.
“You don’t want to cut streams of revenue that fund vital core functions of government, like public safety, infrastructure spending at DOT, for instance, energy grid expansion. So these are things that we have to be cognizant of,” Wilson said.
Other approaches
Evette and Wilson are two of five Republicans running for governor. U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace and state Sen. Josh Kimbrell have also pushed out plans to eliminate the state income tax.
Mace has said the state can eliminate the income tax in five to seven years by capping general fund spending at $11.6 billion and mandating a 4% cut by state agencies every year for five years, among other moves.
Kimbrell wants to eliminate the state income tax by eliminating sales tax exemptions and charge sales tax on services.
U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, who has said he would veto spending out of the budget, said he would focus on cutting “wasteful spending.”
“Rep. Norman will eliminate the state income tax starting by eliminating wasteful projects, auditing every agency, and scaling back the spending each year and moving the funds to tax relief,” Norman spokeswoman Brittany Yanick said. “He is the only candidate in the race who is capable of eliminating the income tax because he’s the only one committed to rooting out the corrupt wasteful spending of the Columbia career politicians.”
This story was originally published March 5, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
