Citizens’ Guide to the State Budget
This year’s budget debate is over, and taxpayers lost. But next year’s budget is already in the works. Here’s how you can be a part of it. Citizens’ Guide to…
Rhetoric vs. Reality in the State Budget
WHAT WAS ALL THE FUSS ABOUT? (HINT: NOT MUCH) The battle over the state budget is over. The state’s spending plan for fiscal year 2012-2013 is a done deal. As…
Budget Vetoes: Were lawmakers even there?
THE BUDGET VETO “DEBATE” INVOLVED PRECIOUS LITTLE DEBATE If you followed the coverage of the governor’s budget vetoes – rallies outside the State House, op-eds denouncing specific vetoes – you…
Veto Recap
LAWMAKERS REDUCED THE STATE BUDGET BY A TINY FRACTION OF A TINY FRACTION Lawmakers began public meetings on the state’s 2012-13 budget January 10 of this year – the first…
The Battle over Vetoes
SORRY, BUT TAXPAYERS LOST THE REAL BATTLE MONTHS AGO Yesterday the South Carolina House overrode the majority of Gov. Nikki Haley’s budget vetoes. The vetoes themselves were minimal – at…
Art Is about Jobs?
‘JOBS’: THE ALL-PURPOSE JUSTIFICATION FOR EVERY GOVERNMENT PROGRAM Today, as expected, the South Carolina House voted to override Gov. Nikki Haley’s veto of Arts Commission money. Specifically, she vetoed $1.9…
Microscopic cuts
THIS YEAR’S DEBATE OVER VETOES ISN’T ABOUT CUTTING GOVERNMENT This week, the legislature will reconvene to take up the governor’s budget vetoes. Gov. Nikki Haley vetoed $57.1 million from the…
What Did – and Didn’t – Gov. Haley Veto?
$57.1 MILLION SOUNDS LIKE A LOT. BUT IS IT? The release of the Governor Nikki Haley’s vetoes for the 2012-2013 budget has predictably been met with cries that the governor…
Budget quiz!
THINK YOU KNOW THE SOUTH CAROLINA STATE BUDGET? 1) Including state, federal, and “other” funds, the budget totals approximately a. $6.6 Billion b. $8.6 Billion c. $17.3 Billion d.…
Airbus v. Boeing?
DID ALABAMA GET A BETTER DEAL THAN WE DID? In October of 2009, South Carolina celebrated Boeing’s decision to locate a production line in North Charleston and bring an untold…
Push Back: How South Carolina Can Respond to “Obamacare”
THE PROBLEM: The new federal health care takeover will add trillions to the nation’s debt, raise taxes by $669 billion, heap burdensome regulations on South Carolina businesses, and spark sharp…
Restructure This?
MORE STUFF THE DEPT. OF ADMINISTRATION BILL WOULDN’T HAVE DONE Last week, we attended a meeting of the Budget & Control Board. Now, oftentimes these meetings are excruciatingly uneventful,…