McMaster lays out plan for South Carolina in visit to Coastal Carolina

On Monday, April 23, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster made a stop on the campaign trail to the campus of Coastal Carolina University as he bids for reelection this November.

It was the first time the sitting Governor of South Carolina came to Coastal Carolina’s campus for a campaign event since Nikki Haley visited the campus back in 2014.

McMaster spoke to a crowd of about 120 people on Monday night at the Johnson Auditorium in the Wall College of Business. During this time, McMaster talked about a variety of subjects from the institution of Coastal Carolina itself to the growth that the state has seen in recent years.

“We have built a lot of great institutions over the years that have stood the test of time,” said McMaster. “Relatively speaking, [Coastal] is a new one but this place is going to be a major institution and it will have a major impact on everything going on in this part of the state… Everyone wants to come to this part of the country and most of all, they want to come to South Carolina. That is why we are running ahead of all the other states.”

McMaster has been governor of South Carolina since Jan. 24, 2017 after United States President Donald Trump appointed then-governor Nikki Haley to be the ambassador to the United Nations. Since then, McMaster has faced adversity and brought some prosperity to the state of South Carolina.

Since he took office in January of last year, the state of South Carolina has seen 17,000 new jobs added - something that McMaster has called his “number one achievement”.

McMaster talked about what he views as his job as governor.

“What I see my job is as governor is understanding where we want to go, understand how we want to get there and then get there,” said McMaster. “And the hardest part about this is getting the facts.”

One of the key points that McMaster discussed on Monday was taxes.

“People say that to get more money that we need to raise taxes,” said McMaster. “Well sure, that will raise taxes for a little while. But then that ends up killing business growth. You cannot thrive on heavy taxes and heavy regulations.”

McMaster says that he will continue to push for lower taxes through his new tax plan.

McMaster’s tax plan includes a “1% rate reduction over five years for all personal income tax brackets, which will result in $2.2 billion in taxpayer savings through the course of implementation, starting with an immediate $139 million cut that is paid for and certified in this budget”.

The tax plan also discusses “an immediate and full retirement income exemption for military veterans and first responders, including retired state and federal law enforcement, firefighters and peace officers, representing $22 million in relief the first year”.

In an early April poll, with a sample size of 400 people, conducted by Target-Insyght, a nonpartisan Michigan-based research and polling firm, McMaster is leading by 24 percent over Catharine Templeton, former Director of the Department of Health and Environmental Control.

The primary for the 2018 South Carolina gubernatorial election will be held on Tuesday, June 12. If necessary, a runoff election will be held two weeks later on June 26.

The 2018 South Carolina gubernatorial election will take place on Nov. 6, 2018.