TAXES & ECONOMIC FAIRNESS: I support an end to unfair taxation. A good place to start is with the elimination of property taxes on primary residence and a reexamination of the luxury tax. The resultant shortfall in government revenues by elimination of these taxes can be met by a combination of reductions in government expenditures and ending corporate tax breaks. I propose that we study the effect of an increase in the sales (consumption) tax and, what would be the effect of levying a flat tax on all retail purchases at a uniform rate (no local option) throughout the state. Additionally, we should examine whether a more progressive income tax is a step toward real tax reform as compared to phasing out the income tax over an 18-year period as proposed by one of the other candidates.

Too many families in South Carolina are locked into high interest rates and discouraged from acquiring wealth. Only the acquisition of wealth and the resultant credit and access to lower interest rates for families and small businesses, can break the cycle of poverty and close the wealth gap. It is bad public policy to discourage property ownership as opposed to consumption.

I support policies that would end to predatory banking and lending practices to include using credit as a condition of insurance coverage. There must be better legal protection against predatory foreclosures. South Carolina has the highest foreclosure rate in the country. I believe there should be a moratorium on home foreclosures in our state (and the nation) and remedies to prevent people from losing their most basic need –their homes.

WORKERS RIGHTS: I believe in the fundamental right of association. Thus, I believe that workers have the right to organize and to collectively bargain for good wages and benefits.

EQUITABLE FUNDING OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS: A half-century after the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, South Carolina's public schools are still separate and unequal. A better funding mechanism other than property taxes will help to make equitable, statewide funding of all school districts a political reality.

>LOTTERY FUNDS, SCHOOL CHOICE AND EDUCATIONAL REFORM: The Gray campaign supports accountability for and fair distribution of lottery education funds -- It's time to compare the promises to the reality. I see the lottery as a tax on the poor to pay for the education of the middle class.

I believe that government vouchers should be used only to finance parental choice within the public school system. Most government vouchers not only threaten First Amendment guarantees of separation of church and state and freedom of religion, but also threaten the independence of private schools, thereby eliminating any meaningful parental choice.

I believe that we must find options others than suspension, expulsion & "alternative" schools for "at risk" children. I oppose the authoritarian direction of public education that does little to help children learn but instead manipulates them into accepting the elimination of their human and constitutional rights.

DRUG ABUSE AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE: Too many of our people are incarcerated, and too many others are engaged in black-market sales and distribution of illegal substances. Prohibition, which failed to put an end to prostitution or alcohol abuse, has only made drug trafficking more profitable. We must lead the way in putting an end to prohibition. We must treat drug abusers for the medical/psychological problems, which have kept many of them in conditions of long-term drug dependency. Decriminalization will drive this business out of the black market. Then it can be subject to reasonable public health regulations and provide additional tax revenues. Decriminalization will also permit our criminal justice system to get down to the business of dealing with real criminals, who commit crimes against the persons and property of others, and alleviate our courts of the impossible burden of the unwinnable "drug war," which is currently making a mockery out of speedy trials, legal representation of the poor and indigents, and other essential components of constitutionally guaranteed due process of law in a free society.

I support granting clemency and a full restoration of rights to all non-violent drug offenders. Probation, treatment and social integration - jobs, and schooling - are the only answer to this failing, extraordinarily costly and racist social policy known as the “War on Drugs”. In South Carolina, over 65% of those in adult facilities and 80% in youth facilities are black. Nationwide, 80% of those jailed for drug offenses are black and Latino and live below the poverty line.

FAIRNESS IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE I support an end to the death penalty and the call for a death penalty moratorium. Every day another person on death row is released because he has been found innocent. No state can claim it has not executed innocent men and women. No state can claim they do not have men and women only hours or days away from execution that may be innocent. The death penalty kills based on racial and class inequality. Only the rich can afford to avoid death in the execution chambers of this country. Ending the death penalty is the only answer. We must invoke a death penalty moratorium pending a comprehensive reexamination of the system, at trial and at sentencing, to insure justice and fairness and to protect the innocent.

We must put an end to the enactment of new criminal statutes that constitute unfunded mandates by virtue of their failure to include provisions for funding the additional costs of maintaining our courts, our public defender programs, and our prisons. We must insure better protection and supervision of all persons in our jails and prisons, especially those under the supervision of the Department of Juvenile Justice. Only in these ways can we reduce the incidence of death and injury in the jails and penal institutions that effectively results in cruel and unusual punishment, often of those who have not been found guilty of a crime.

RESTITUTION/REPARATIONS AND RACIAL JUSTICE: I support public education on the issue of Restitution. We must face the issue of institutionalized racial injustice, past and present, without reservation. Governments (principally the United States) and a handful of corporations are the sole survivors of the era of slavery in America. The United States is the holder of billions of dollars in assets that are not directly relevant to any of its constitutionally authorized powers or responsibilities. Releasing this property to private citizens would result in an influx of private capital into our economy that would be of benefit to all citizens. Therefore, instead of asking taxpayers to pay for “reparations” to a “community,” we should require government to make restitution, by divesting itself of such nongovernmental assets and transferring ownership to descendants of those who were enslaved or otherwise victimized by government. Such persons must have the opportunity to reasonably establish their entitlement to such restitution in individual suits or class actions. Therefore, we must repeal or reform statutes of limitation, sovereign immunity, and other legal obstacles that prevent victims of government oppression or their descendents from seeking just restitution in courts.

THE ENVIRONMENT I believe we must end the shipment of plutonium to South Carolina and abandoning plans to make bombs or fuel for nuclear power plants. We demand that corporate polluters be held criminally and financially liable for their crimes against our environment.

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