40 days to primaries — Evette, Wilson, & Johnson vie for votes at Columbia Chamber forum
COLUMBIA, SC (WOLO) — Thursday night, three candidates in the race for the governor’s office vied for votes at the Columbia Chamber’s gubernatorial forum.
Held at the SC State Museum, Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, Attorney General Alan Wilson, and Rep. Jermaine Johnson attended — speaking to around 50 business stakeholders inside the museum’s planetarium.
The chamber says all candidates were invited, however others were unable to attend.
While filming was not allowed inside the forum, ABC Columbia’s Lee Williams spoke with the three candidates before and after the forum about their hopes for small and large businesses should they become governor.
“You know that’s something I’ve talked about for the last 8 years. How do we cut regulations? Because time is money and time kills deals and business people understand that. So it’s ‘How do we go in and get rid of the majority of these 80,000 regulations that are old and outdated and they’re not being productive?’ We have got to become the most business friendly state in the country because we’re competing with other states,” says Evette.
“When I’m governor my number one goal will be to reduce taxes across the board, remove red tape, streamline permitting processes and remove the barriers to prosperity that stand before many of the businesses here in SC both large and small alike,” says Wilson.
“We know the small businesses here are the backbone of this state, but right now we treat them like second class citizens. And I think here in SC we need to start looking at tax breaks and incentives for businesses in SC often when businesses want to come here, I want to start giving these same types of tax breaks…to small businesses to help them thrive,” says Johnson.
South Carolina’s Democratic and Republican primaries are June 9th.
