State Budget: Enough to Fund Roads Already
THE GOOD NEWS: THE STATE HAS ENOUGH TO FUND ROADS. THE BAD NEWS: LAWMAKERS WILL NEED TO GO WITHOUT PAY HIKES, CORPORATE WELFARE, AND PORK. State budgets are a big deal.…
The Attorney General’s Appeal: An Analysis
“The lower court’s order is unprecedented in American law and unsupported by any known legal authority.” On May 19, Attorney General Alan Wilson filed an appeal with the Supreme Court…
House Version of “Ethics Reform”: Smoke & Mirrors
SH.3945 HAS GIVEN LAWMAKERS FAR TOO MANY OPPORTUNITIES TO DO BAD THINGS The House version of the “ethics reform bill,” H.3945, approved this week, is a beautiful example of why…
Harrell v. Wilson: What’s at Stake?
IT’S MORE THAN A SPAT BETWEEN POLITICIANS One June 24, 2014, the Supreme Court will hear arguments about whether Judge Casey Manning ruled properly when he shut down the Attorney…
Reforming S.C.’s Eminent Domain Law
THE GOVERNMENT CAN TAKE YOUR LAND FOR ALMOST ANY REASON. HERE’S WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT. In June of 2005 the United States Supreme Court issued its ruling in the now…
A Judge’s Misguided Ruling
IT’S NOT JUST WRONG. IT’S DANGEROUS. Judge Casey Manning’s recent ruling in the matter of the state grand jury investigation of House Speaker Bobby Harrell will, if allowed to stand,…
Hey Senators, Here’s What to Cut
WE KNOW, YOU WON’T CUT MUCH. BUT COULD YOU AT LEAST SKIM A LITTLE? The Senate is set to take up the budget recently approved by the Senate Finance Committee.…
Sketchy Things Happening with the “Ethics Bill”
APPARENTLY THE PURPOSE OF “ETHICS REFORM” IS TO USE ALL AVAILABLE MEANS TO PROTECT POLITICIANS FROM SCRUTINY The more lawmakers amend the ethics bill, the more we’re put in mind of…
The Truth about Licensing Laws
THEY STIFLE COMPETITION AND PENALIZE LOW-INCOME CITIZENS. SO WHY DO S.C. LAWMAKERS LIKE THEM SO MUCH? Last week the Policy Council drew attention to the contrast between South Carolina’s free market reputation…
The Problem(s) with Common Core
WILL COMMON CORE PREPARE YOUR KID FOR SUCCESS? UNFORTUNATELY, NO. Over the last year, we’ve seen a number of pro-Common Core publications that ask and purport to answer some variation of…
S.C.’s Economic Outlook Still Lackluster
A BRIEF LOOK AT WHY The latest ALEC-Laffer State Economic Competitiveness Index ranks South Carolina’s economic outlook at 31st in the nation. That’s right. Despite handing out hundreds of millions…
S.C. Lawmakers & Your Taxes
THINK S.C. LAWMAKERS ARE SERIOUS WHEN THEY EXTOL THE VIRTUES OF “LOW TAXES”? PREPARE TO BE DISAPPOINTED. South Carolina is known as a “red state” and a “conservative” state, and so…
Withdrawing from Smarter Balanced: Q&A
SOUTH CAROLINA MAY WITHDRAW FROM THE COMMON CORE-ALIGNED CONSORTIUM KNOWN AS SMARTER BALANCED. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? With the recent move by the South Carolina Department of Education to remove…
Lawmakers’ Latest Power Grab: Just the Facts
LEGISLATORS’ ARGUMENTS FAIL TO PERSUADE H.5072 – one of the most brazen acts of legislative retaliation we’ve ever witnessed – would allow the House and Senate to authorize a special prosecutor to investigate…
New Deregulation Bills Filed
ARE LAWMAKERS GETTING SERIOUS ABOUT REGULATION? The Policy Council has pointed out before the economically destructive effects of regulation. We’ve also argued that regulation is often – perhaps usually –…
The Politician Protection Act?
ARE HOUSE MEMBERS USING THE LAW TO PROTECT SOMEONE? OR TO WARN SOMEONE? PERHAPS THEY SHOULD EXPLAIN. Over the last year, we’ve noticed a growing number of bills introduced for the…
The Ethics Bill: Still Alive, for Now
THE STICKING POINT: SELF-POLICING A House Judiciary subcommittee met on Tuesday to once again take up the “ethics bill” – H.3945. Versions of the bill have already passed both the…
How to Free South Carolina’s Energy Market
YOUR ELECTRICITY RATES ARE HIGH, AND GOING HIGHER. HERE’S THE REASON. In South Carolina – as in most other states – regulation has almost completely divorced the energy sector from the…
Making Earmarks Public
PERSONAL FUNDING REQUESTS SHOULDN’T BE ANONYMOUS A vast amount of money, but you know virtually nothing about what’s being spent, or why. That’s not because you’re uninformed – the state…
Educational Freedom: How to Achieve It
HOW TO THINK DIFFERENTLY ABOUT EDUCATION IN S.C. It’s no secret that South Carolina has some of the worst public schools and some of the lowest levels of student academic…
A Crackdown on Accommodations Tax “Evaders”
LAWMAKERS’ ANSWER TO UNFAIRNESS: PUNISH MORE BUSINESSES, NOT FEWER Almost all forms of taxation raise the question of fairness. Why does one person pay a higher percentage of his or…
Senate Leadership Gets Taste of Own ‘Rules’ Medicine
“Veterans” of the South Carolina Senate know the Senate rules and Jefferson’s Manual like the back of their hands. To the untrained eyes and ears, the legislative “code” used in…
Last Minute Chances at Ethics Reform?
THE CLOCK IS TICKING… An omnibus “ethics” bill has passed the House and the Senate in different versions. That bill, which could be considered more of an income disclosure bill…
Study: More Money, No Improvement
AS EVER, THE EASY ANSWER IS THE WRONG ONE A new study by the Cato Institute reinforces the findings of SCPC and other researchers: more money doesn’t produce better results.…
Stopping Common Core: Is It Too Late?
LAWMAKERS SHOULD END IT – WITHOUT EQUIVOCATION AND WITHOUT DELAY When it comes to Common Core’s adoption in South Carolina, there is plenty of blame to go around. The federal government could be…
State Budget Skyrockets in Ten Years
SO THIS IS THEIR IDEA OF “CONSERVATIVE” BUDGETING? Despite South Carolina politicians’ claims over the past decade that South Carolina has a “conservative” budget, the FY 2014-15 budget passed by…
SCPC Statement on Speaker Harrell
Originally released to media on Thursday, March 13, 2014. A report by The State that Speaker Harrell’s attorneys are trying to get the Attorney General thrown off of Harrell’s case…
The Ethics Bill: House vs. Senate
WHERE DOES THE ETHICS BILL STAND TODAY? The famous (and at times notorious) “ethics bill,” having recently passed the Senate, may soon head to conference committee. The House can propose…
Should Economic Incentives Be Evaluated?
THE SHORT ANSWER: YES, BUT . . . This week on the Senate floor, a member recited two familiar – but no less remarkable – facts: In 2000, South Carolina…
Repairing the S.C. Public Service Commission
REFORM IS MEANINGLESS WHEN LEGISLATORS DOMINATE AND NO ONE IS ACCOUNTABLE In our legislatively dominated state, there’s practically no aspect of state government that the General Assembly doesn’t either dominate…