With a daily increase of confirmed COVID-19 cases in South Carolina, many residents and small businesses are suffering from the impact of measures to combat the disease. The Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) reported Sunday a total of 774 cases state-wide even as legislators and city leaders have tried to prevent the virus’s spread.
The first step of this prevention was seen in Governor Henry McMaster’s order to shut down dine-in services at restaurants and bars. Despite enacted to protect public health, this mandate poses a threat to many local businesses that have attempted to adapt through offering delivery and other specialized services.
Governor McMaster has repeatedly declined to mandate a state-wide stay-at-home order, but that does not rule out the possibility of him doing so in the future if the outbreak does not begin to subside. Once again, the enactment of this policy would benefit the greater health of South Carolina residents, but one group would bear the cost of this mandate the most: small businesses.
South Carolina has approximately 400,000 small businesses that employ almost double that figure. The state relies on small business workers for its economy and the provision of basic services and goods to its residents. A stay-at-home order would seriously impact the livelihoods of small business owners, workers, and South Carolinians as a whole.
Democratic Representative Justin Bamberg of District 90 urges South Carolinians to consider how to guarantee that small businesses survive COVID-19 should a stay-at-home order be enacted.
In a series of tweets published on Sunday, Rep. Bamberg outlined ways that the state can ameliorate the uncertainties felt by small business owners and employees.
Rep. Bamberg proposed that – should Governor McMaster issue a stay-at-home executive order – the General Assembly should exempt small businesses from state income tax for the next two years.
Additionally, Rep. Bamberg argued the passage of an amendment to the state budget that would refund all 2019 state income taxes paid by those same small businesses that qualify for the exemption outlined above.
Rep. Bamberg’s proposals would bring relief to a hard-hit community in our state, providing small business owners the ability to avoid layoffs and maintain employees on the payroll for the duration of the crisis.
“It does no good to just save people’s lives,” wrote Rep. Bamberg, “while at the same time condemning them to insurmountable poverty because no employment means no food, no shelter, no money to spend in our economy…and no ability to pay for standard healthcare.”