June 16th, SUTA Relief

Well it’s good to see the Governor holding firm to help businesses and the state fight its way out of the unemployment hole we dug ourselves into. It looks like we will see some relief and the question is, will it be $100 million or $146 million? I am glad to see the house hanging in there trying to keep the tax relief at $146 mm. There are lobbyists from other groups stacked up with hands out to get the budget surplus money. But making sure our state economy continues to add jobs HAS TO BE first in line. Reading about the overall economy elsewhere in the country should serve as warning….the SC Manufacturing recovery can be short lived. And the SUTA tax increase surprising everyone in January is just the type of negative catalyst that could cause it to slow down.

The additional money found has various groups clamoring to get a piece of it. I understand that education needs to be strengthened. Or transportation improvements have to be made.

But first we HAVE TO put people to work. Thats the most important thing in the short term we need to do.

To those state legislators in there fighting the fight to lessen the impact of the SUTA increase, we are behind you.

This week should be the final push. We have a signed bill providing some badly needed changes and relief. Now hopefully that relief will be bigger, letting SC companies to go out and hire more people.

Herb Dew