South Carolina needs judicial reform
1.20.22 UPDATE: Ahead of next month’s judicial elections, including for one seat on the state Supreme Court and Administrative Law Court, and many on the Court of Appeals, circuit court,…
Eight reforms to take your power back
. South Carolina has some of the most powerful politicians in the country. They exercise unwarranted powers over state government and the economy, and face very little accountability for their…
Delegations have a transparency problem: let’s fix it
Legislative delegations in South Carolina have a serious transparency problem. As it turns out, an alarming number of counties are missing basic information about legislative delegations on their websites. In fact, some…
Delegations in SC rank among most powerful in nation
South Carolina’s county legislative delegations, comprised of the lawmakers representing each of the state’s 46 counties, are among the most powerful in the nation. In fact, most states don’t even recognize such delegations, and where they do,…
Delegation influence reaches state airports
By now, if you’ve been following the Policy Council’s latest research, it should come as no surprise to hear that legislative delegations (the group of state lawmakers representing a particular county) play an oversized role in filling important state and local positions, which has…
Lawmakers need to fix SC’s magistrate system
In South Carolina, magistrate judges have serious power, especially over the lives of everyday citizens. For many, their courtroom will be the final stop when it comes to adjudicating legal issues. This is why it is particularly alarming that in…
Why don’t more counties control local road funding?
Despite the gas-tax-hike having passed in 2017, an alarming number of South Carolina’s roads and bridges are still crumbling. As bad as things are for state roads and highways, locally managed roads are sometimes in the worst condition, as…
How small groups of lawmakers control massive state institutions
There is little question that South Carolina lawmakers exert tremendous power over state government, and consequently, the life everyday citizens. This topic is something the Policy Council has researched extensively…
Explosive spending, questionable provisos define next year’s budget
State lawmakers this week approved what will be the final version of next fiscal year’s $32 billion-plus budget, pending vetoes issued by the governor. The General Assembly will take up any vetoed items when it reconvenes next Tuesday for the final…
Examining South Carolina’s massive proposed budget
While the 2021 regular legislative session ends this week, lawmakers are set to return to Columbia in June – possibly on three separate occasions – to address a number of…
What’s going on with Santee Cooper?
UPDATE as of 5/7/21: This week, the House voted to keep the option to explore selling Santee Cooper in H.3194, while adopting some of the Senate’s “reform” measures, including those…
Bills update 2021: what passed and what to watch
Last week (Saturday, April 10) was the 2021 crossover deadline, which means bills that failed to pass one chamber (House or Senate) and cross to the other by this date…
S.499 – Election law challenges & appointments
This bill (S.499) would establish that the House speaker and Senate president, on behalf of their respective bodies, have an “unconditional right” to intervene in a state court action that…
Lawmakers want fewer checks on higher education spending
Update: House lawmakers inserted language from the bill as a proviso in the state budget, which passed the chamber Wednesday. The budget bill now heads to the Senate. Under S.376,…
Diverting gas tax dollars to pay local officials?
On Tuesday, the South Carolina Senate passed a bill that would pay certain transportation officials (appointed by lawmakers) using their county’s local share of gas tax revenue. S.447 would pay…
Bills filed during 2/2/21 – 2/4/21
. Taxation/ Spending H.3790 – Appropriating an additional 4% of the funds received by the General Fund from admission taxes to the Dept. of Parks, Recreation and Tourism for exclusive…
Bills filed during 1/25/21 – 1/28/21
. Spending S.491 – Issuance of $550 million in General Obligation bonds (backed by every taxpayer in the state) for a Charleston Port expansion project H.3707 – Appropriating $45,000,000 to…
Bills filed during 1/12/21 – 1/21/21
Education H.3611 – Creating a massive data collecting system that tracks children from preschool through the workforce (the data warehouse) the bill is nearly identical to what lawmakers introduced in…
Bills to watch in 2021
Before convening the 2021 legislative session (which began earlier this month) lawmakers filed roughly one thousand bills in advance of the New Year, known as “prefiles”. These bills can offer…
Rate hike would let Dominion cut customers’ power over “implied” threats
In August, Dominion Energy proposed a rate increase of almost 8 percent through an application to the SC Public Service Commission (PSC). The PSC waited almost two months to schedule…
Dominion seeking nearly 8% rate hike, more control over customer property & power
In 2018, S.C. legislators cut a deal with Dominion Energy to buy SCANA (with approval from the Public Service Commission, or “PSC”) in which customers were promised a 15 percent…
Leftover bills could pass as legislature returns for special session
South Carolina lawmakers return for a special session this week, primarily with the goal of passing a new state budget and allocating the remaining federal COVID-19 aid – along with…
Legislative update: What lawmakers passed and what’s still in play
South Carolina lawmakers met last week (May 12) to take up legislation dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, and to pass a resolution funding state government through the year until they…
House, Senate pass competing resolutions to fund state government, COVID-19 emergency
Yesterday, the General Assembly met to pass a continuing resolution to ensure that state government will be funded through the end of the fiscal year in June and until they…
Local governments’ emergency power grabs
Local governments all over the state are adopting emergency measures to combat the COVID-19 outbreak – but not all of them are making their emergency declarations and ordinances easily accessible. …
Lawmakers call for federal constitutional convention
Legislation calling for an Article V convention to amend the U.S. Constitution has been gaining traction lately. An Article V convention has never happened before, and the U.S. Constitution contains…
Property rights threatened by new eminent domain bill for private companies
EMINENT DOMAIN FOR PIPELINE COMPANIES? A recently filed bill (S.1100) would give private petroleum pipeline companies the power to condemn state residents’ property through eminent domain. It would also classify…
Road-naming bills: Political favors for politicians
Last September, the Department of Transportation (DOT) Commission voted to rename the “John N. Hardee Expressway” in Columbia to the “Columbia Airport Expressway” following Hardee’s guilty plea to a federal…
Lawmakers double down on Second Amendment attacks
MULTIPLE BILLS ATTACK SOUTH CAROLINIANS’ RIGHT TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS A growing number of bills filed by lawmakers would erode South Carolinians’ Second Amendment rights. In recent weeks, five…
Lawmakers attempt to divert gas-tax dollars to pay local transportation officials
Three recently filed bills would pay certain local transportation officials (appointed by lawmakers) out of their counties’ local share of gas-tax revenue. H.4819 would pay each member of the Union…