Year: 2015

Worst of the worst: ● Forcing citizens to undergo training before even buying a gun. ● Creating a new crime of failing to notify law enforcement after gun theft. ● Rolling back roll-call voting…

INCREASED FUNDING MIGHT – MIGHT – GET YOU A “MINIMALLY ADEQUATE” EDUCATION. CHOICE CAN DO FAR BETTER. A year ago the South Carolina Supreme Court issued a decision in the…

● South Carolina’s session is one of the nation’s longest ● Longer sessions mean lawmakers spending more time with lobbyists ● In South Carolina, there are about two lobbyists for every one…

EMINENT DOMAIN POWER FOR A NON-UTILITY PRIVATE COMPANY?  Update: This bill was ratified and signed by the governor with the provision that eminent domain would not apply to private, for-profit…

TAKEAWAYS: ● Federal-state agreement on cleanup costs not available to public. ● Key officials in relief effort not accountable to any statewide official. ● State-federal assistance system is a dizzying web of bureaucracies.…

SOUTH CAROLINA’S ONLY COMPREHENSIVE ASSESSMENT OF EVERY YEAR’S LEGISLATIVE SESSION Our guide to the 2015 legislative session – The Best and Worst of the General Assembly – has just been published. It’s the only…

HOW CAN WE MAKE SOUTH CAROLINA’S POLITICIANS THE LEAST POWERFUL AND MOST ACCOUNTABLE IN THE NATION? (1)  Restore judicial independence. The public deserves confidence that judges rule independently of the…

WHEN THE ARGUMENT IS ABOUT EVIDENCE, SCHOOL CHOICE WINS. EVERY TIME. Over the last thirty years or more, well-meaning reformers have tried valiantly to improve educational results within public education systems. Prominent…

Update: This bill was amended and much was taken out from the original legislation. The Council is now essentially a glorified study committee, which will “make recommendations to the General Assembly…

SOUTH CAROLINA IS A RIGHT-TO-WORK STATE. DOES THAT MEAN SOUTH CAROLINIANS ARE FREE TO WORK? NOT ENTIRELY. South Carolina’s status as a right-to-work state is often credited by government officials…

ON CARRYING FIREARMS, THE PRESUMPTION SHOULD BE ONE OF LIBERTY S.105 and companion bills S.570 and H.3716 are all attempts to enact a policy of “constitutional carry.” If passed, any of the…

● Lawsuit alleges city acted improperly in gun ban. ● Attorney General opinion agrees. ● City’s ban runs against Second Amendment, court precedent. ● Flouting constitutionality a troubling trend in state, local bills. Of…

WHY TAXES AND FEES ON PARTICULAR INDUSTRIES PROTECT  ESTABLISHED COMPANIES AND STIFLE INNOVATION  Companion bills S.862 and H.4329 would stipulate that a third party that makes an accommodation reservation and…

SOME SLOPES REALLY ARE SLIPPERY [Update: S.868 has been amended. The amendment has replaced the entire text of the bill with a provision stating that the eminent domain powers granted to telegraph…

THERE’S ONLY ONE WAY TO ACHIEVE BUDGET TRANSPARENCY, AND THAT’S TO FOLLOW THE LAW  The budget debate this session was one of the most bizarre we’ve seen yet. It wasn’t that…

SAME BAD ARGUMENT, DIFFERENT TAX It is a long held view among many elected officials that the only thing preventing exemplary achievements for students in state run schools is insufficient…

EVERY YEAR, LAWMAKERS TRY TO PASS POTENTIALLY CONTROVERSIAL CHANGES THROUGH THE STATE BUDGET. BUT NOT EVERY PROBLEM IS A FUNDING PROBLEM. Legislators returned to Columbia July 6 for a third…

THE STATE BUDGET IS A TRANSACTION BETWEEN TAXPAYERS AND GOVERNMENT. HERE’S WHAT YOU’RE BUYING. After being rushed through a secretive committee process, the fiscal year (FY) 2016 conference budget –…

● U.S. Supreme Court defines federal agency as “state” ● Millions will continue to be subject to individual, employer mandates ● Only one way remains to circumvent ObamaCare Last week…

‘IF THEY BELIEVE THEY AREN’T BEING PROPERLY COMPENSATED FOR THE WORK THEY DO, THEY SHOULD REDUCE THEIR WORKLOAD’ Watch the General Assembly long enough and you’re sure to hear the popular…

H.4330 – Parental Right to Refuse Assessments Act – would give parents the power to excuse their children from the many K-12 standardized tests administered in this state. The bill…

The Quality Hospice Programs Act, introduced in H.4327 as only a slight deviation from the Hospice Licensure Act, expresses limitations and regulations with regards to ‘multiple location’ hospice facilities. A…

SESSION IS OVER … ALMOST The third week in June ended on a tragic note in the General Assembly, and attention has rightly been away from legislative business. In the interests…

According to companion bills H.4326 and S.868, pipelines for transporting petroleum products are “vital to the welfare of the people of this State” and, thus, the companies that own and…

S.861 would require pawnbrokers seeking a Certificate of Authority to conduct national criminal background checks for all owners, partners, members, officers, directors, and future employees. Current law requires only the…

H.4325 would require the Public Service Commission (PSC) to adopt regulations that enable and encourage utilities to negotiate with and enter into “provisional and conditional power purchase agreements” with offshore…

LAWMAKERS HAD A CHANCE TO ADVANCE ECONOMIC FREEDOM IN SOUTH CAROLINA. THEY MISSED IT. Lawmakers have introduced a number of bills this session designed to clear up the legality of…

S.849 seeks to regulate the duties of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). PBMs are defined as entities who contract with pharmacies on behalf of insurers, third party administrators or the South…

House bill H.4228 would condense the middle income tax brackets while leaving the highest and lowest brackets essentially unchanged. This bill would eliminate the 3, 4, 5 and 6% tax…

STATE HOUSE ECONOMICS, CHAPTER III On Monday the House Ways and Means Committee unanimously approved a standalone bill to appropriate $415 million in surplus revenue. The proposal is separate from the…