Year: 2015

● One last chance for this year’s omnibus “ethics” bill ● Self-policing provision makes little actual improvement ● Income disclosure provision contains loopholes, exceptions The Senate may take one more…

IT’S MONEY. THEY WANT TO SPEND IT. THAT SETTLES IT. ANY QUESTIONS? In a little remarked upon move, South Carolina House members scrambled last month to insert line items from…

H.3164 replaces the income tax with a 3.5% tax on adjusted gross income, and allows a tax forgiveness credit based on income level and dependents. The bill creates a set…

S.372 broadens the definition of “cigarette,” increasing the weight limitation from three pounds or less of tobacco per thousand to four and a half pounds per thousand. The new definition…

Companion bills S.595 and H.4151 change the method by which the cigarette tax is paid. Under current law, the cigarette tax is payable by distributors, who are required to make a monthly…

H.3049 directs the Department of Revenue (DOR) to create a tax expenditure report every four years to determine the effectiveness and efficiency of economic development tax incentives issued by the…

● The S.C. Department of Transportation is an unaccountable mess. ● Act 114, the 2007 “reform,” improved virtually nothing. ● What little Act 114 did improve may soon be repealed.…

S.594 would add detail to the Jobs Tax Credit by requiring the Department of Revenue to issue a report containing the net number of new full-time jobs created in this…

H.3911 would add four years to the period before new license plates must be issued. Currently, new license plates must be provided every six years. This bill would lengthen that…

S.589 creates a music therapy license and a Music Therapy Board, which will serve under the Director of the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. This bill is simply an…

S.584 would amend the SC Code regulating marijuana to create more flexibility for medical uses. Current law permits the use of cannabidiol (a non-psychoactive derivative of the cannabis plant) to…

 S.426 would permit circuit solicitors to establish mental health court programs to serve “qualifying mentally ill offenders”. Any circuit solicitor that accepts state funding to create a mental health court…

● Numerous and complicated tax and fee hikes. ● Constitutional issue addressed – briefly. ● Bill to come up in full Senate next week. The Senate Finance Committee had a productive…

DEBATE LIMITED TO ONE GOAL: HOW TO SEND MORE MONEY TO A BROKEN SYSTEM Tuesday’s Senate Finance Committee featured a lot of grandstanding but little action. Senators agreed to strike…

H.3525 bears many similarities to H.3413 and S.409, two other bills introduced this session to create a regulatory framework for transportation network companies (TNCs), that is, companies that provide personal transportation arranged…

THE HOUSE FOUND MONEY FOR SPECIAL INTERESTS PROJECTS, BUT NOT FOR CORE SERVICES The recent House-passed FY16 budget is the largest of the three versions of the budget released this…

S.277 would impose a monthly dual party relay charge of no more than 10 cents on cell phone service customers. The bill would also impose the same charge on every…

H.3865 allows individuals who would not otherwise be eligible to draw unemployment benefits to receive them if they are engaged in “self-employment assistance activities”. Such activities include “entrepreneurial training, business…

H.3838 takes its provisions from other bills already filed, notably Senator Cleary’s S.523 and Senator Grooms S.23. Specifically, H.3838 would exempt large commercial motor vehicles (vehicles that are greater than…

H.3836 would subject natural gas to the same fuel tax that currently applies to gasoline but exempt it from the Inspection and environmental impact fee charged on petroleum products. The…

S.559 would require any person desiring to grow hemp in South Carolina apply for and receive a license from the Division of Regulatory and Public Service Programs at the College…

HOW A BILL IN THE S.C. SENATE WOULD RUN UP AGAINST THE U.S. CONSTITUTION AND U.S. SUPREME COURT PRECEDENT [Click here for a printable .pdf version of this report, and here for a short…

WHEN IT COMES TO GETTING YOUR MONEY, STATE SENATORS WON’T LET A LITTLE OL’ CONSTITUTION GET IN THE WAY When a special Senate subcommittee met on Tuesday, the purpose was clear: raising revenue by…

FOR HOUSE LAWMAKERS, ROAD FUNDING IS ABOUT BUILDING NEW ROADS, ‘ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT’ – AND JUST ABOUT ANYTHING BUT FIXING THE STATE’S CRUMBLING ROADS AND BRIDGES.  Lawmakers are quick to bemoan the state of…

S.556 would amend the Senate rules by adding a new rule requiring that within 60 days of any proposed agency regulation being submitted to the appropriate Senate committee for review…

S.523 is the Senate Finance Committee’s attempt to solve South Carolina’s infrastructure problems through tax and fee increases. To start, the bill would increase the gas tax by 12 cents, phased in…

S.498 would make it a crime for a private individual to fly a drone equipped with a camera or recording device over the property of another. The bill would also…

Companion bills H.3785 and S.389 would expand the scope of activities that business development corporations (BDC’s) can legally engage in. BDC’s are quasi-public quasi-private entities that receive state and federal funds from…

THE HOUSE IS DEBATING A $497 BOND PACKAGE. IT’S TERRIBLE IDEA, FOR LOTS OF REASONS. NOW TAKE A LOOK AT WHAT LAWMAKERS WANT TO SPEND THE MONEY ON. This week the House will…

  More often than not, state regulation – especially licensing laws – has little to do with protecting the public and everything to do with insulating currently entrenched businesses from competition.…