Sisters of Charity Foundation of South Carolina welcomes Nuns on the Bus tour

Friday, November 02, 2018

Tags: Sisters of Charity Foundation of South Carolina , Foundations

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The Nuns on the Bus tour is making its way across America and recently stopped in South Carolina, where staff from the Sisters of Charity Foundation of South Carolina joined them, U.S. Rep Jim Clyburn and more for a roundtable discussion about the challenges facing South Carolinians as well as the state’s assets. Also part of the discussion were PASOs, South Carolina Appleseed Legal Justice Center, Women's Rights and Empowerment Network- WREN and Homeless No More.

Nuns on the Bus is a campaign of NETWORK: advocates for justice inspired by Catholic sisters who educate, organize, and lobby for economic and social transformation. The goal of the tour is a get-out-the-vote campaign with a special focus on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, highlighting in particular the disparity between the rich and the middle class in shouldering the tax burden.

Sister Simone Campbell, SSS, opened the roundtable discussion, saying, “Our goal today is to learn about the reality of South Carolina.”

The need for affordable housing was toward the top of the list. U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn said that as a result of the new federal tax bill, 232,000 units of affordable housing will not be built. He also noted that traditional agriculture and textile industries have gone to Asia, but tourism is the state's No. 1 business, and if visas are harder to get, the bottom will fall out of that market. A third concern was that the new tax bill contains taxes on charities and places of worship.

Read a recap of the Nuns on the Bus visit to the Carolinas in the Global Sisters Report.

The Sisters of Charity Foundation of South Carolina is a ministry of the Sisters of Charity Health System.