Year: 2010

As the budget goes into conference committee, we will be highlighting issues that currently divide the two chambers. In Part I of this series, we looked at the I-95 Corridor…

The Senate voted today not to concur with the amended House budget – meaning the state budget will head to conference committee. As part of our ongoing budget coverage, we’ll…

Cutting spending should be a top priority as the House takes up the proposed Senate budget. As we have previously noted, the proposed Senate budget increases spending by $60 million…

  South Carolina is heavily dependent on federal funding, raising questions regarding the state’s fiscal autonomy, as well as its approach to budgeting. But who, really, is getting this money?…

Download the PDF. As the S.C. legislative session finally comes to a close this week, it’s worth asking whether lawmakers are making good use of their time – and taxpayer…

With the film industry clamoring for additional tax breaks, it is worth asking whether such targeted tax breaks actually work. As we’ve written before, targeted tax incentives do not result…

Download the .pdf version here.   With the House and Senate voting to override the governor’s veto of a 50-cent cigarette tax increase, it’s worthwhile to revisit the reasons why…

In South Carolina, economic incentive spending has been the emerging trend of the last 20 years. In 1994, the state spent $32 million on economic incentives. In 2008, that figure…

This memorandum addresses, specifically, whether S.C. House Bill H. 3047 (hereinafter "H 3047") is constitutional and, more generally, whether the changes to the method of recording votes in both houses…

In 2008, the South Carolina Policy Council (SCPC) released research showing that the S.C. General Assembly passed bills with a recorded vote only 5 percent of the time.[1] In January…

SC Policy Council President Ashley Landess discusses the impact of increasing government spending on economic growth at the April 26, 2010, meeting of the Aiken City Council. Part 1 Part…

The Senate Finance Committee budget increases spending by $60 million over the House version. The House budget – passed on March 18 – is an increase of $400 million over…

Even as lawmakers are complaining about budget cuts and a barebones spending act, state spending continues to increase – by 2 percent over last year’s appropriated budget. By comparison, per…

While media coverage of the budget this year has pointed to “the $5 billion budget,” “1,000 job layoffs,” and “unprecedented cuts,” the truth is that the budget is still growing…

As the Senate Finance Committee meets this week to take up the budget, it’s a good time to review the House budget passed earlier this month. Here are the basics:

I am Dr. Jameson Taylor, Director of Policy with the South Carolina Policy Council. As you may know, the Policy Council is a non-profit, non-partisan think tank dedicated to safeguarding…

The House recently passed legislation, the Transportation Infrastructure Funding Flexibility Act, authorizing the creation of public-private partnerships (PPP) that can be used to build roads in South Carolina. In theory,…

Since FY02-2003, the Other Funds category of the budget – basically, statewide fees and fines – has grown by more than $2 billion. These fees and fines are a burden…

Are Retail Incentives Constitutional? A Review of the Sembler and Bass Pro Shops Incentives Legislation   Are economic development incentives constitutional? If the state’s frequent reliance on such incentives to…

Just last week, the House Ways & Means Committee pushed through a 30 cent per pack cigarette tax increase as a proposed proviso in the FY10-2011 budget. The tax increase…

The continuation of our interview with South Carolina Comptroller Richard Eckstrom, and the burden the gargantuan debt will place on future generations. ”Is this political stimulus we’re after, or is…

It goes without saying our political leaders should treat public tax dollars with the same care and consideration they would their own finances. This maxim has never been more necessary…

Sponsored by House Speaker Bobby Harrell and 108 other representatives, the Economic Development Competitiveness Act is the product of Speaker Harrell’s economic development working group. This 49-page bill combines a…

For more than two decades, no general tax increases have been enacted in South Carolina, a fact often cited by legislators seeking to burnish their “friend of the taxpayer” credentials.…

Despite a lot of talk about budget cuts, the 2009 General Assembly ended up passing a budget even larger than that from FY08-2009 – $20.7 billion compared to $19.97 billion.…

In part 1 of our interview with Richard Eckstrom the South Carolina comptroller talks about the long-term impact of the federal stimulus program on the state. With no real, sustainable…

Last week, we indicated which prefiled bills in the House deserved special mention. Now, we turn to the Senate. Perhaps because it’s an election year, or perhaps because they’ve been…

Christmas comes early every year in the Statehouse, as legislators who just can’t wait until January start prefiling bills. Like most of the ideas in the General Assembly, there are…

Christmas comes early every year in the Statehouse, as legislators who just can’t wait until January start prefiling bills. Like most of the ideas in the General Assembly, there are…

Imagine a business plan based on overly optimistic results, an underreporting of costs and a desire to conceal essential data from key stakeholders. If the result does not sound promising,…