Creating the Department of Children’s Advocacy
UPDATE: The House passed this bill by a vote of 107 – 0 on 4/24/18 with one minor amendment. Upon the governor’s signature, this bill will become law. If the goal…
Net Metering: Two Bills, Two Approaches
Additional update: House lawmakers killed H.4421 on its third reading vote (normally a procedural vote, as amendments and debate occur on second reading) by raising the point that the state…
S.1128 – ORS may request circuit court for release of V.C. Summer documents
This joint resolution would allow the executive director of the Office of Regulatory Staff (ORS) to file for a circuit court order requiring V.C. Summer documents and/or witnesses to be…
S.1112 – Shortening session by one month
This bill would shorten the legislative session by around four weeks. Instead of ending on the second Thursday in May, it would end on the second Thursday in April. All…
S.854 – Extends disability filing period for public employees
S.854 allows members of the South Carolina Retirement System (SCRS), the Police Officers Retirement System (PORS), and the General Assembly Retirement System (GARS) that become disabled due to a job…
Phase Two: State Pension Reform? Not Quite
Over the last several weeks, South Carolina’s pension system has drawn even more attention from lawmakers, prompting them to propose bills that would significantly change the state’s retirement landscape.…
Friday Follies: Selling Seashells by the Seashore, No More
Just in case it wasn’t abundantly clear, South Carolina lawmakers want to make sure citizens know that it is not illegal to pick up sea shells by the seashore –…
Spending Growth, Priorities in the 2018 House Budget
UPDATE: When the Senate’s version of the budget returned to the House, the latter readopted the original House budget with additional amendments. The total budget spending approved by the House is…
Lawmakers Take Aim at Charter School System
It’s no secret that South Carolina’s education system is regarded as one of the worst in the country. In many cases, lawmakers have turned to increased spending and growing government…
A convention to amend the state constitution?
This week, a number of freshman lawmakers filed legislation to call a convention to amend the South Carolina constitution. Much like the United States Constitution, the South Carolina Constitution can…
Friday Follies: Fines and Community Service for Saggy Pants
This past week, the legislature showed an unusually keen interest in how South Carolinians choose to wear their clothes. H.4957 would make it a civil offense for a person to…
“Survival of the fittest” the state policy for car dealerships?
How successful does a car dealer have to be to be allowed to stay in business? Under current South Carolina law, car dealers are issued a certain number of dealer…
Article V Convention of States: Dangerous and Ineffectual
Update as of 2/17/22: Two resolutions (H.3205 & S.133) calling for an Article V convention of states passed a Senate subcommittee on Wednesday, the former of which passed the full…
H.4386 & H.4810 – Metal detectors in public schools
Two bills filed by the House would change security policy in South Carolina’s schools. H.4386 would require that metal detectors be installed at the public entrances of every public school…
Regulating Liquor Stores: Third Time’s the Charm?
In Best and Worst of the General Assembly 2017, we discussed a newly-passed law that reinserted a regulation into state law in direct defiance of a Supreme Court ruling.…
H.4814 – Legislating procedures for mold inspection in local schools
This bill spells out procedures for dealing with mold in public school facilities. It tasks both the State Board of Education (SBOE) and the Department of Education (DOE) with developing…
S.888 – Schools may compensate teachers for unused vacation days
This bill would allow local school districts to compensate public and charter school teachers for any sick or vacations days earned but not used. This creates an additional teacher incentive,…
S.793 – Property Tax Procedure Act
Under state law, taxpayers can challenge the tax assessments of their property. This bill would slightly change the appeals/challenge process. Under this legislation, the Department of Revenue (DOR) would begin…
S.889 – Local sales tax may be used for economic development projects
This bill would allow locally-imposed sales and use taxes to be spent on economic development projects. As “economic development” is not clearly defined, this bill would, in effect, allow these…
S.C. Supreme Court Elections – Quick and Quiet
WHY YOU HEAR NOTHING ABOUT YOUR NEW SUPREME COURT JUDGES When President Trump nominated Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court one year ago, the nation’s media, political class, judicial…
Finally, Some Good News for Healthcare
BILL PROTECTS INNOVATIVE PRIMARY CARE ALTERNATIVE America’s healthcare system often leaves consumers burdened with high costs and limited choices. This is the result of numerous regulations on medical professionals and…
House Energy Bills: Perception vs. Reality (Updated)
The General Assembly is currently debating six bills to ostensibly “reform” the system and the laws that created the V.C. Summer nuclear construction debacle. These bills were developed in the…
S.954 – Prohibits PSC from issuing any BLRA orders except for experimental rate in House bill
This joint resolution instructs the Public Service Commission (PSC) not to take any action on the V.C. Summer issue until ninety days after the end of the 2018 legislative session,…
H.4389 – Privatization of school buses
This bill would privatize the state’s school bus fleet. Under current law, school bus transportation is controlled by the State Board of Education and funded by the state. This bill…
Property Rights Threatened by Lawmakers’ Economic Development Interests
REMOVING CITIZENS’ POWER TO HOLD THEIR NEIGHBORS ACCOUNTABLE? UPDATE: The final version of the bill placed parameters on the bill’s scope, but the core of the proposal – the violation of…
H.3546 – Exempting direct primary care agreements from regulation
This bill would allow patients and their doctors to bypass insurance companies and requirements by setting up direct primary care agreements and protect those agreements from regulation by the Department…
H.4415 – Public Service Commission elected by the people
This bill increases the size of the Public Service Commission (PSC) from seven to ten, seven of which are elected by the voters in each congressional district, and three of…
H.4414 – PSC appointed by governor, PURC’s role eliminated
This bill would allow the governor to appoint the Public Service Commission (PSC) members with the advice and consent of the Senate. The Public Utilities Review Committee (PURC) would no…
What the General Assembly did on Last Year’s Budget Vetoes
Last year the legislative session ended before the governor’s line-item vetoes of the 2017-18 budget were issued, and lawmakers opted to wait until session reconvened the following January to sustain…
Friday Follies: Restaurant Staff Appreciation Month
If there’s anything state lawmakers are good at, it’s wasting time on frivolous legislation. This week’s return to the legislative session was no exception. On Wednesday, a handful of lawmakers…