Infrastructure, state spending, and accountability: SC District 99 candidates respond
South Carolina House District 99 will have a new face in Columbia next year. Republican Rep. Mark Smith, who has represented the district since 2020, is not seeking reelection, leaving Republican Jarrod Brooks, a Berkeley County Councilmember, and Democrat Samuel Price, a software developer, competing for the seat. The district covers Daniel Island and parts of the Clements Ferry and Cainhoy communities, and its representative helps make decisions on everything from roads and schools to taxes and state spending.
Q: What do you see as Daniel Island/Clements Ferry corridor's number one issue you can impact as an SC representative?
Jarod Brooks (R): As your state representative, I'll be the squeaky wheel advocating for traffic and highway safety on 526 and Clements Ferry Road. We need city, county, and state governments collaborating to produce real solutions quickly. I've accomplished that coordination on the county council, so I have a head start.
Samuel Price (D): Infrastructure. Whether it's preventing data centers from taking over or building better infrastructure for affordable housing and transportation, infrastructure is our biggest concern. We’ve had a Republican supermajority that had their chance to tackle this for 20+ years; it’s time that finally gets done.
Q: What is your number one priority/project to secure/direct state funding for?
Brooks: Traffic and highway safety solutions along Clements Ferry Road and 526. If that means moving more container traffic by rail and keeping trucks off the highway, adding lanes to congested roads, or putting in traffic lights to allow drivers to safely turn left, I'll work with anyone and everyone to get that done.
Price: Infrastructure being our leading concern, I will make sure to secure funding to lower energy costs and drive better construction of our state’s infrastructure. People deserve roads that don’t take years to fix, and they don’t deserve to be paying for failed nuclear projects.
Q: What state law is your most important priority to originate, amend, or quash?
Brooks: The state budget is the only bill the legislature must pass, and we must be good stewards of your tax dollars. The budget's grown bigger quickly, but we haven't made fixing our roads and bridges a high enough priority. This is where making South Carolina more affordable meets our traffic and highway safety agenda.
Price: I plan to amend and push laws to regulate and get flock cameras out of our state. We don’t need cameras monitoring you every day, and we need better guardrails to prevent corrupt or untrained officials from mocking our justice system by illegally tracking and stalking someone.
Q: As far as your day-to-day activity in the General Assembly, would you consider your legislative personality: more of a Queen Bee or Worker Bee?
Brooks: I prefer workhorse over show pony, and my record on county council shows I put in the effort to learn the issue and bring people together to find solutions.
Price: Worker. I am not here to tell the people what to do, how to think, who to vote for, or to attack half our population with threats. I am for a government for the people, by the people, and I’ll work to make sure our state has that.
Q: Any issue that we didn't mention that you would like to discuss?
Brooks: Affordability. The legislature needs to meaningfully cut taxes, income taxes, property taxes, and business taxes to keep South Carolina a competitive, affordable place to raise a family, build and grow a business, and retire comfortably. That starts with responsible budgeting and putting the taxpayer first in everything the legislature does.
Price: We do not do enough to remove corruption and provide transparency; we don’t even know who designed the new Charleston gateway sign and who we paid for it. This needs to stop. We need plain answers and simple transparency in our government.