Speaker Bobby Harrell, Opponent Debate Taxes

Legends Oaks residents wanted to know what could be done at the state level to keep taxes low and perhaps lower them.

S.C. House District 114 Rep. Bobby Harrell and petition challenger John Steinberger fielded questions about taxes Thursday evening during Legend Oaks HOA's candidate forum at Beech Hill Elementary.

Harrell and Steinberger spoke at the forum, as did unopposed S.C. Senate District 38 candidate Sean Bennett and all seven of the school board candidates vying for three open seats on the board. 

Click here to watch a brief video on Harrell addressing ethics charges.

Steinberger is a Fairtax proponent and Harrell is a sponsor of the stalled Fairtax bill at the Capitol. But Harrell about-faced on the issue and said Fairtax would be better served at the national level and not at the state level during the forum. 

Harrell touted his decades-long tenure in the House, saying taxes have been continuously lowered since 1994 and he will continue recent, small initiatives to reform the tax code bill by bill. 

"The Republican caucus made a decision that we would do overall tax reform that we would do in a series of small bills," Harrell said. "Our goal is to work on a series of small bills over the next several years so we don't bring everybody out of the woodwork to kill the big bill ... Tax reform is possible, in fact we started it by passing that bill last year. I think you have to do it in a number of small bills rather than one big bill that may fall under its weight."

Steinberger pushed his ideas for Fairtax, which would eliminate the state income tax. Harrell said he wouldn't want to raise the state's sales tax or eliminate exemptions like for groceries, but Steinberger said there would be no increase to sales tax, and some exemptions would remain.