The Ways & Means Budget Is Here
SHORT VERSION: MASSIVE HIKES FOR THE USUAL SUSPECTS The House will begin debate on another record high budget today. At $25.4 billion (assuming a $1.5 billion food stamp item…
The “Nullification” Bill, Then and Now
WHAT THE BILL DOES, AND COULD, ACCOMPLISH Originally known as the “nullification” bill, H.3101 has gone through many changes since it was originally pre-filed for the 2013 legislative session.…
Anti-Common Core Legislation: Update
The K-12 The Education Subcommittee met Wednesday to discuss bills related to Common Core, most notably, S.300 that, as originally written, would prohibit the use of Common Core academic standards…
Firearm Freedom: How to Achieve It
FREEDOM TO OWN GUNS ISN’T THE PROBLEM — SOUTH CAROLINIANS SHOULDN’T HAVE TO PRETEND IT IS South Carolina is one of the most gun friendly states in America, according to conventional…
School Choice in South Carolina: 2014
THIS YEAR, AT LEAST ONE PROPOSAL IS ACTUALLY ABOUT SCHOOL CHOICE Fourteen representatives in the House came together on February 6 to co-sponsor the most significant attempt at school choice…
How Do We Stop ObamaCare? Transparency.
WHERE’S THE MONEY GOING? HOW MUCH? WHAT FOR? The federal health care law known as “ObamaCare” gets more unpopular every week, but the question for citizens and policymakers is…
Lawmakers Meet on Common Core – 3.5 Years Too Late
WHY NOW? On Wednesday February 5, the Senate Education K-12 Subcommittee heard six short presentations on Common Core – three for and three against – in a packed room full…
Banning E-Cigs: WWFD?
‘SOME PEOPLE DON’T LIKE IT’ ISN’T A SUFFICIENT REASON TO CURTAIL INDIVIDUAL LIBERTY “Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will,” wrote Thomas Jefferson in a letter of 1819,…
Intelligence-Gathering ‘Fusion Centers’ in the State Budget?
SHOULD S.C. PAY FOR SURVEILLANCE? Gov. Nikki Haley’s executive budget grabbed a few headlines for its items on education, transportation, and Medicaid waiver programs. One component of the budget was…
Education Oversight Committee Passes the Buck on Common Core
COMMITTEE WON’T MAKE DECISION, CITIZENS PAY THE PRICE In February of 2012 the State Board of Education approved the use of SMARTER Balanced assessments – the tests made by a “consortium”…
Is Legislative Self-Policing Really a Problem?
IF AN ETHICS REFORM BILL ALLOWS LAWMAKERS TO CONTINUE POLICING THEMSELVES, IS IT REALLY AN ETHICS REFORM BILL? During a brief debate on H. 3945 – a bill most legislators…
Governor Proposes Most Liberal Budget in SC History
ANOTHER YEAR, ANOTHER RECORD BUDGET At roughly $25 billion, it can be said that the executive budget for Fiscal Year 2014-15 is the most liberal in state history. While the…
Gov. Haley’s Education Plan: More Money
THE TROUBLE IS: MORE MONEY ≠ BETTER PERFORMANCE Last week Governor Haley unveiled her K-12 Education Reform Initiative for South Carolina. The governor’s new plan is consistent with most education improvement…
Top Ten Bills to Watch
KEEP AN EYE ON THESE Throughout December, lawmakers pre-filed their bills for the 2014 legislative session – 102 in the Senate and 83 in the House. It’s extremely difficult to…
Why Raising the Minimum Wage Raises Unemployment, Too
WHAT SOUNDS LIKE A GOOD IDEA, ISN’T Minimum wage workers around the country, including workers in South Carolina, made headlines recently when they protested in favor of higher wages. “America can’t…
Allowing Hemp Cultivation: WWFD?
ONCE UPON A TIME, THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT COULDN’T BAN A PRODUCT SIMPLY BECAUSE IT WANTED TO A bill pre-filed in the South Carolina Senate will likely attract a lot of…
What You’ll Be Spending in 2014, Part II
MORE MONEY FOR K-12 AND HIGHER EDUCATION: A GOOD IDEA? State agencies virtually always ask for more money than they had last year. That’s what they do – even, or especially,…
Different Standards for Different Officials?
SOME GET THE BOOK THROWN AT THEM, SOME GET SLAPPED ON THE WRIST, AND SOME GET IGNORED Action on ethics charges has been almost non-existent in South Carolina until recently,…
Year-End Giving
Make sure to send your gift of $50, $100, $250, $1,000 or some other amount by December 31 to help start the new year strong! When you donate to the…
Rejecting Common Core – and the Structure that Made It Possible
‘NULLIFYING’ COMMON CORE WON’T MAKE IT GO AWAY, BUT A BILL NOW IN THE LEGISLATURE WOULD GIVE TAXPAYERS SOME SAY IN THE MATTER The first step toward removing Common…
The History and Lessons of Mutual Aid
WHAT COMES AFTER THE WELFARE STATE? Today the welfare state is omnipresent in every part of the United States. The federal budget is dominated by entitlement spending, with 45 percent…
S.C.’s Young, Healthy Adults: ObamaCare’s Impact
YOUNG AND HEALTHY? BE READY TO PAY UP. Now that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is actually being implemented, many Americans are not pleased with the law. One population of…
The State Budget: What You’ll Be Paying for Next Year
‘AGRITOURISM’ AND OTHER LESSONS IN NONSENSICAL GOVERNMENT GROWTH Every year, South Carolina state agencies tell lawmakers how much money they want for the upcoming fiscal year. Unfortunately for taxpayers, they…
Fines & Fees Imposed by the Unelected: WWFD?
WHY THE DANGER OF ‘TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION’ IS STILL WITH US In many states – certainly including South Carolina – the state can raise taxes on citizens without even consulting…
Landess Discusses the Real Meaning of ObamaCare
Airing this month on ETV (SCC – the South Carolina Channel), the Policy Council’s Ashley Landess discusses the real significance of ObamaCare with two other panelists on Carolina Business Review. Click…
Contract, Clarity, and a Return to Sovereignty
HOW TO STOP FEDERAL COERCION – INCLUDING OBAMACARE – AND ENACT FREE MARKET REFORM [PDF of full report here; a briefer version of the report here.] For three years, policy…
George Washington and the Budget & Control Board
WHAT WOULD THE FOUNDERS DO ABOUT S.C.’S GOVT. STRUCTURE? As we stand today, South Carolina’s state government is full of blurred lines of responsibility across the legislative, executive,…
What Would the Founders Do about Our Income Tax?
WOULD THE FOUNDERS BE SATISFIED WITH JUST ‘SIMPLIFYING’ THE INCOME TAX CODE? Among the several tax-related bills we analyzed in our annual guide, The Best & Worst of the General…
The Risks of State Property Insurance
GOVERNMENT IS SHIFTING THE COST OF COASTAL LIVING On October 30th a legislative subcommittee will meet to discuss the issue of the availability and cost of coastal property insurance. South…
W.W.F.D.?
WHAT WOULD THE FOUNDERS DO? In compiling our guide to the year’s legislation, The Best & Worst of the General Assembly, we found ourselves asking a simple but important…