South Carolina lawmakers recently convened their 2020 session, during which they will debate a number of important issues, such as cutting the Southeast’s highest state income tax rate, and education reform that provides more choice to parents.
Among the most important issues to be debated in Columbia this year is what to do with Santee Cooper, the state-owned utility company that has accumulated billions of dollars in debt, much of it due to the failed V.C. Summer nuclear project fiasco. Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist recently sent a letter to South Carolina lawmakers urging them to approve the sale of Santee Cooper to a buyer who will assume the utility’s debt.
“Of all the options put forth to date, only the sale of Santee Cooper has the potential to reduce or eliminate the enormous future costs to be borne by the ratepayers and provide the ability to protect ratepayers in the future,” explains a recently released by the Palmetto Promise Institute Report.
While the sale of Santee Cooper to a private entity is the best solution for South Carolina taxpayers, it’s critical that such a sale not result in ratepayers continuing to bear the cost of bad decisions made by officials at the state-owned utility through future rate hikes. As such, ATR is urging Palmetto State lawmakers to approve the sale of Santee Cooper before the current legislative session ends, and to do so in a manner that protects taxpayers, ratepayers, and eliminates the possibility of a taxpayer bailout.
ATR recently launched a digital ad campaign urging South Carolinians to sign a new petition that urges lawmakers to sell the state-owned utility to a private entity who will assume Santee Cooper’s debt, so that ratepayers and taxpayers aren’t stuck with the bill for a failed nuclear project.
To sign the petition, click here.