Fanning defeats Palmer in state Senate 17 race

A longtime educator who lives in Chester County defeated a York County businessman and Iraqi war veteran late Tuesday in the race for S.C. Senate District 17.

Democrat Mike Fanning, 49, a former educator, now executive director of the Old English Consortium, held a narrow lead in the race against Republican and U.S. Army National Guard veteran Mark Palmer, 57, of York, according to unofficial results posted at scvotes.org.

Senate District 17 includes part of York County, including southern Rock Hill and the area surrounding York, and all of Chester and Fairfield counties. Fanning lives near Great Falls. Palmer lives in York and works in Rock Hill. The state Senate term is four years.

Both candidates declined to comment late Tuesday, reached before final results were completed. “We’re just sitting on the edge of our seats,” said Palmer.

It was the second win at the polls for Fanning in about five months,. Fanning unseated 16-year incumbent Sen. Creighton Coleman of Winnsboro in the June Democratic primary runoff.

The State Law Enforcement Division confirmed earlier this month it is investigating claims that Fanning is accused of inappropriately touching a 16-year-old girl years ago while he was a teacher at Estill High School in Hampton County. Fanning has declined to respond to the charges.

Both candidates argued for fresh ideas in the S.C. General Assembly.

Fanning has called for comprehensive tax reform. Fanning said the gas tax hasn’t been increased since 1987 and a third of people who use the state’s roads don’t live here. He said South Carolina has the fourth-worst roads in the country and its gas tax is the third lowest.

“I believe in comprehensive tax reform,” he said. “We got into this mess by decreasing taxes in a vacuum. I don’t believe the gas tax should be the answer. I do think we need to look at our tax system.”

He also called for tax reform as a part of his approach to education and other issues, saying that by removing a third of some 400 tax exemptions, the state could collect around $5.5 billion in revenue.

Palmer said he’s generally opposed to a tax increase when the state hasn’t taken the steps to examine where it could save money and considered how road projects are prioritized.

Palmer said the state needs to fund education equitably for all school districts, but “throwing more money at education is doing nothing to solve the problem. We need to get parents involved.”

Palmer said the state needs to look at Act 388, South Carolina’s property reform measure that replaced owner-occupied property taxes with a penny on the sales tax.

This story was originally published November 8, 2016 at 10:55 PM with the headline "Fanning defeats Palmer in state Senate 17 race."