On this second episode of Season 2 of Beyond Policy, Palmetto Promise Institute’s Dr. Oran Smith interviews economist Zachary Cady of The Buckeye Institute. Palmetto Promise and Buckeye recently released an economic impact analysis of the 2025 personal income tax reform bill proposed by Republican leaders in South Carolina, which would move the state’s highest-in-the-region personal income tax rate to a flat tax of 3.99%, on the way down to 2.49%. In this conversation, Dr. Smith and Cady unpack the results of this study, diving into the dynamic economic scoring model that Buckeye’s Economic Research Center utilizes in their research.
Will South Carolina join other states across the nation in what Cady calls “the flat tax revolution”? What trade-offs are involved in the legislative process when it comes to tax reform? How do we know how tax code changes will affect the broader economy? All these and questions and more are discussed on this episode of Beyond Policy.
To read the Buckeye and Palmetto Promise study on the economic impact a 3.99% flat tax would have in South Carolina, click here.
