House Kills Property Theft Bill
THE PRINCIPLE ANIMATING THE DILAPIDATED BUILDINGS ACT WAS A SOFT GOVERNMENT-KNOWS-BEST AUTHORITARIANISM On Tuesday, the House killed legislation commonly known as the Dilapidated Buildings Act by a vote of 35 to…
Senate Passes ‘Independent [sic] Investigation’ Bill
LEGISLATIVE SELF-POLICING REARRANGED, NOT ELIMINATED Yesterday the Senate amended H.3184, which deals with the legislature’s system of self-policing – i.e. lawmakers adjudicating each other’s ethics violations in the form of…
Additional Funding for the Infrastructure Bank
Update: these two bills have been combined to form S.1258, which is an official committee bill. Under this bill, the two revenue streams (car taxes and DMV fees) would be directed into the…
UPDATE: Senate Moves on Income Disclosure
INCOME DISCLOSURE, WITH LOOPHOLES Senators seemed determined this week to not let another session go by without addressing “ethics reform” – although nothing that’s likely to pass the legislature will…
What the House Did on the Senate Roads Plan
STILL NO TAX INCREASE, BUT STILL NO ACTUAL REFORM The House took up the Senate roads plan (H.3579) on Wednesday, April 13, and amended the bill once again. Debate was…
UPDATE: Senate Addresses Ethics Legislation
THE SENATE BILL IS GONE. THE HOUSE BILL IS BACK. WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN? The ethics debate in the Senate got very interesting this week as the Senate took…
UPDATE: Second Amendment Bills
● Concealed carry bills pass House, await Senate approval ● Plenty of assertion, no evidence from gun rights opponents ● Gun restriction bills going nowhere We’re about halfway through the…
Does the Constitution Require Self-Policing?
THE SHORT ANSWER: OF COURSE NOT Many, if not most, South Carolina state lawmakers have a peculiar understanding of the separation of powers. For them, the principle seems to mean that…