Issue Statements

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Bobby Harrell believes in getting to work on the issues. Here’s where he stands on some of the most important ones:

Creating Jobs and Growing Our Economy

Bobby with Chairman and President of Michelin North America Jim Micali and Bibendum (better known as the "Michelin Man").

Lowering taxes, making it easier for our businesses to hire more workers and grow their business, and improving the quality of life for our citizens are essential elements in creating a prosperous state.

One of the best ways to improve the lives of our citizens is to improve South Carolina ’s economy. We must continue to implement our strategy of job creation and focus on increasing average income levels across our state, in both rural and urban areas.

To compete for new jobs and corporate investment, we must take a “customer service” focus and build a pro-business climate with tax incentives, targeted regulatory action and workforce training programs to help companies succeed. We also need to help South Carolina ’s small businesses, support entrepreneurship, and spark the creation of homegrown companies.

In addition, we must diversify our economy by supporting growth in areas where South Carolina has unique strengths or competitive advantages. Times are changing quickly. To be a leader in a knowledge economy, we must diversify and branch out into new industries.

Going forward, we must compete based on an educated workforce, world-class research universities, high-tech infrastructure, innovation, and public policy to drive knowledge-economy growth.

Improving Education

The education of our children is extremely important. In fact, it is one of the most important issues facing our states and is an issue that affects us all. However, education is not a stand-alone issue.

A strong educational system is a critical part of a successful economy. For us to compete on the global playing field, we must ensure that our citizens have skills and academic tools to take on the jobs of tomorrow. Helping to foster a knowledge-based economy that is run by our state’s best and brightest minds should be a major goal for our state.

It all begins in the elementary, middle, and high schools of our state. To advance our national ranking for educational achievement, we must set statewide academic standards, encourage innovative teaching methods, and focus on math and science to develop a knowledge-economy workforce. We must also measure our progress and develop accountability systems to ensure our schools are making the grade. Finally, we must develop quality early childhood programs in the state that enhance school readiness.

Also, we cannot continue to have an excellence gap across our state. We must assist struggling and underperforming schools so that all of the state’s children have the same opportunity to achieve. We must require districts to establish local accountability systems along with the statewide ones.

As we work to develop a knowledge-based economy, we must work to deepen our talent base and prepare the next generation for higher-paying jobs. We must give more of our students access to higher education.

It is also important that we encourage our state’s top academic achievers to attend South Carolina universities. Our scholarship programs have been very useful in fighting this so called “Brain Drain.” This helps us keep our best and brightest here to be leaders in driving our economy forward.

If we focus on these education initiatives, the return on the investment will be significant and will help ensure prosperity for decades to come.

Reducing the Tax Burden on South Carolinians

We must actively look for ways to ease the tax burden on the hardworking people of South Carolina.

Tax relief on your homes, the things you buy and the businesses you operate are part of the billions of dollars in tax cuts we have passed over the past few years. We must continue this consistent record of cutting taxes.

Higher taxes slow economic growth and discourage entrepreneurship. Keeping taxes low makes it easier for our existing businesses to grow and create jobs. In addition, lower taxes will help South Carolina be more competitive in attracting new jobs and corporate investment, which will help fuel our economy and improve the quality of life for our state’s citizens.

Bottom line, we believe you work very hard to provide for your family and we believe that more of that money should stay in your pocket, not the government’s.

Promoting Wise and Careful Government Spending

To keep taxes low, we must also run our state government with increased efficiency. That means we must look for every opportunity to eliminate government waste and duplication.

We must wisely manage the dollars contributed by hardworking South Carolina taxpayers and, as a government, practice principles of responsible stewardship. We need to make every dollar go as far as it can, always be conscious of the bottom line, and increase accountability in government spending.

Unlike our counterparts in Washington, here in South Carolina we practice fiscal conservatism. Every year we pass a budget that is balanced and serves the citizens of our state, not the special interests groups.

Working Across Party Lines

In order to pass real reform and pass laws that benefit our citizens, we have to gather support from both sides of the aisle.

Real progress in South Carolina relies on cooperation and action. Working together, we can build a stronger South Carolina . We must put our partisan differences aside and put the needs of our citizens upfront.

Throughout his years in the S.C. General Assembly, Bobby Harrell has consistently championed legislation that moves South Carolina forward. Click here to take a closer look at Bobby’s legislative accomplishments.

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