COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) – Democratic and Republican candidates for South Carolina governor made their pitches to members of the state’s business community Tuesday night at a bipartisan forum held at the University of South Carolina’s Darla Moore School of Business.
Candidates who attended the forum were Republicans Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, Rep. Ralph Norman, State Sen. Josh Kimbrell and Attorney General Alan Wilson. The Democratic candidates present were State Rep. Jermaine Johnson and Upstate businessman Billy Webster.
Democratic candidate Mullins McLeod and Republican candidates Rep. Nancy Mace, Lowcountry businessman Rom Reddy and Jacqueline Hicks DuBose were not present.
The event was hosted by the South Carolina Manufacturers and Commerce, one of the largest business advocacy groups in the state, and focused on business, infrastructure and tort policies.
Republican candidates largely called for cutting taxes and overhauling what they described as “outdated” regulations.
Evette and Wilson both suggested using AI and other technologies to make processes related to business regulations easier
“Start utilizing AI, utilizing technology, and let the hard work be done so that businesses can get permits and regulations become easier,” Evette said.
We need to use advanced artificial intelligence platforms that can cut the wait times down for permitting processes," Wilson said.
Kimbrell called for a complete overhaul of the state’s current business regulations.
“You cannot possibly keep up with that number of regulations, and we have regulations in the books right now that were passed when Harry Truman was president,” he said.
Norman said he would question businesses about the benefits they would bring to the state beyond jobs.
“If their only statement is that they want to bring jobs here, then no. What’s the return on investment? What are you going to bring here,” he said.
Democrat Jermaine Johnson said that a change in political party is needed to fix the state’s infrastructure.
“When you’re driving from South Carolina to North Carolina, you can literally see the line from North Carolina to South Carolina in our infrastructure and our roads. We should be embarrassed about that,” he said.
Fellow Democrat Billy Webster said that a statewide conservation and infrastructure plan is needed to fix the issues.
“We need a statewide conservation and infrastructure plan. Those two things fit together; they fit together to promote smart growth,” he said.
All candidates agreed that, if elected governor, a top priority is to fix South Carolina’s aging roads and bridges, especially as the state continues to grow.
Tort reform was also a large topic of conversation. State legislators passed reform laws last year that would limit excessive lawsuit claims while keeping the courts open to those with legitimate cases.
Several candidates on stage said that they believed the reforms did not go far enough.
“I think what we do is sit down, bring insurance companies to the table, you bring lawyers to the table, you bring businesses to the table,” Evette said.
“We’ve been burned by it as many of you have. If you’re in the business arena, there’s not a business person in here who hasn’t been affected by just frivolous lawsuits,” Norman said.
Kimbrell said that if someone files a lawsuit that is not deemed legitimate, then the plaintiff should have to pay the defendant’s lawsuit fees
“If you file a frivolous, baseless lawsuit that’s garbage, you should pay your opponent’s legal fees,” he said.
Johnson said that the tort reforms just shifted the problem around, rather than actually fixing it.
“When you pass that tort reform, if it does not bring down the insurance premium cost, then that means we didn’t fix the problem, only shifted it,” he said.
Wilson called the state’s current tort system “an exploitable system.”
“You’re seeing a correlation between our tort laws, which is incentivizing more frivolous suits, because it’s there, it’s an exploitable system,” he said.
Webster took a more neutral approach in his response, saying that tort reform needed to be balanced between fairness for plaintiffs and defendants.
“We will continue to address them where we see inequity in the balance between fairness to a defendant and fairness to a plaintiff’s access to a courtroom,” he said.
Early voting begins May 26 and ends June 5. Election Day for partisan primaries is June 9.
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