OCONEE COUNTY — Who has the best experience and who best handles money were the key topics Monday as candidates for the South Carolina Senate District 1 seat and the School District of Oconee County Board of Trustees made pitches to voters.

Incumbent state senator Thomas Alexander, R-Walhalla, said his years of experience have brought him positions on legislative committees that permit him a tremendous opportunity to serve the public.

As chair of the subcommittee on health issues of the Senate Finance Committee, Alexander said, he is able to “see the needs are taken care of for some of our most vulnerable citizens.”

Polly Nicolay, opposing Alexander on the Constitution Party ticket, continually stressed that she was not a political insider as she spoke about a need for fiscal responsibility and a greater role for Biblical teachings and Bible-based morality in government and in public schools.

At the top of her fiscal agenda if she wins, Nicolay said, would be to introduce legislation eliminating the state income tax as a means of luring investment to the state.

Alexander said 85 percent of state revenue for essential services came from income and sales taxes, but that he was proud of his own record as a tax cutter, being part of efforts that eliminated the food tax, totaling $335 million, and eliminated the bottom bracket of state income tax.

Both candidates supported regional transportation systems and sound land and water conservation measures but differed sharply regarding hikes to the state’s cigarette tax.

“Anything government deems acceptable for us to put in our mouths should not be taxed discriminately,” Nicolay said.

Alexander said he was proud that he had led the fight to raise the state cigarette tax by 50 cents a pack, even though it had failed.

The revenue would have provided health care for some of the state’s uninsured, he said, and the price hike would have, statistically, been a deterrent to young people taking up smoking.

Fiscal autonomy for the Oconee County school board was a key issue for school board candidates.

Seth Chea and Tony Schiazza, both candidates for the District 5 Board of Trustees seat, said that as businessmen, neither could imagine not having control of their own finances.

Retired longtime educator Buddy Herring, also seeking the District 5 seat, saw it as a necessity now that so much school funding depended on a sales tax, a “less stable tax,” as Herring described it.

All three are seeking the seat now held by Harry Mays, Jr., who is not seeking re-election.

District 2 incumbent Ken Poston and his opponent, retired educator Rosemary Bailes, both supported fiscal autonomy for the school board.

The legislative delegation did not support it because members did not want to create another taxing authority, Bailes said, “but if we build a bridge of trust, I believe support will come.”

All candidates stressed that efficiency should be improved at every opportunity because financing might not be as flush in future as it has been.

“You can cut things you need the least,” Poston said. “It’s a delicate balance.”

Candidates supported some legally allowable means of keeping prayer in the schools. Chea said he believed in choice, and stressed he did not want to impose prayer on students.

Cases involving possible consolidation of schools, all said, should be looked at in terms of efficiency but also from the standpoint of communities.

“Consolidation should be looked as what’s best for the students, the taxpayers and the community the school serves,” Poston said. “Sometimes the true value of a small community school is priceless.”