Fixing Our Roads: Real Answers, in Plain English
THROWING MORE AND MORE MONEY AT A BROKEN SYSTEM IS HOW WE WOUND UP WITH A DECREPIT ROAD SYSTEM IN THE FIRST PLACE. THE WAY FORWARD IS SOMETHING DIFFERENT. Over…
Weak, Confusing Ethics Bill Has One More Shot
● 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…
Why S.C. DOT Still Needs Reform – Badly
● 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 ● What little Act 114 did improve may soon be repealed.…
Ethics Bills Perpetuate Self-Policing
• A pair of omnibus ethics bills now in the General Assembly purport to end legislative “self-policing.” • They don’t. • Instead, both bills perpetuate a system in which lawmakers…
South Carolina’s Roads Problem Isn’t about Revenue
IT’S ABOUT STRUCTURE, NOT MONEY – ACCOUNTABILITY, NOT TAXES Every South Carolinian who drives a car knows our state’s roads need work. Many have also heard about the Department of Transportation’s…
On Roads, S.C. House Doing Its Own Thing
THE HOUSE PLAN HAS THIS IN COMMON WITH THE GOVERNOR’S: IT ASSUMES WE HAVE A REVENUE PROBLEM. Nearly a week after the governor released her plan to fix South Carolina roads,…
Haley Road Plan: Higher Taxes, New Debt, Fuzzy Numbers
THE GOVERNOR’S PLAN IS A SHELL GAME THAT WOULD DO LITTLE TO IMPROVE S.C.’S ROADS Gov. Nikki Haley’s plan to fix South Carolina’s decrepit roads and bridges and lower income taxes will…
Senate Ethics Bill Would Take Reform Backward
MEET THIS YEAR’S GIANT ‘ETHICS BILL’ The legislative session has only just begun, but somehow lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee are already poised to pass an omnibus ethics reform bill.…
Lawmakers File Scores of ‘Ethics’ Bills for 2015
WHICH ONES DESERVE THE WORD ‘REFORM’? Two years ago, many, perhaps most, lawmakers dismissed the need for ethics reform. They know better now. As the 2015 session begins, already more…
S.C. House Passes One Excellent Reform
. . . AND KILLS A TERRIBLE ONE During the first day of organizational session on December 2, the House voted on and approved a package of 15 rule changes…
What to Watch at the Organizational Session
THERE’S MORE AT STAKE THAN YOU MIGHT THINK At this week’s organizational session, South Carolina House lawmakers will be asked to make several important decisions, including who becomes Speaker of the House…
House Committee Proposes Rule Changes
THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE IMPROVABLE Last week we wrote about some of the bills proposed by the House Ethics and Freedom of Information Act Committee, the committee created…
New Ethics Measures Proposed, Debated
WHAT IS SO HARD ABOUT ELIMINATING EXEMPTIONS AND LOOPHOLES? On Monday the House Ethics and Freedom of Information Act Ad Hoc Study Committee met to consider six proposals. Two of…
New Ethics Proposals Made Public
ARE WE HEADED INTO ANOTHER YEAR OF WEAK ETHICS LEGISLATION? HARD TO SAY. The indictment and subsequent conviction of former Speaker Harrell on ethics charges has brought renewed calls for reform…
How “Restructuring” Gave the Legislature More Power
NEW POWERS FOR LAWMAKERS? Much has been made of the restructuring of state government through the Department of Administration bill passed in January. Proponents of the bill have labeled it historic…
Testimony: Reforms to House Rules
SCPC PROPOSES REFORMS TO NEW COMMITTEE ON HOUSE RULES AND PROCEDURES [Editorial note: The following testimony was delivered by Policy Council Director of Research Jamie Murguia to the House Ad Hoc…
Why “Publicly Owned” Resources Get Neglected
IS YOUR LOCAL GOVERNMENT DOING A GREAT JOB OF MAINTAINING PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE? IF NOT . . . The Nerve recently reported on a lawyer who is simultaneously serving as a…
How S.C.’s Legislature Bullies Local Governments
WHEN WILL LOCAL GOVERNMENTS PUSH BACK AGAINST ALL THIS MEDDLING? The House of Representatives returned for a special one day session on August 27 to address a mere two bills…
The Ethics Bill: The Devil’s in the Details
THIS 23-PAGE ‘ETHICS BILL’ ISN’T WHAT YOU THINK (UPDATE: The bill analyzed here died on the Senate floor before the sine die session ended on June 19, 2014.) The South…
Conference Committee Misses Mark on Ethics Reform
ONE STEP FORWARD, TWO STEPS BACK The conference committee on H.3945 (the “ethics bill”) met on Wednesday to hash out differences in the House and Senate versions of the bill before…
The need for judicial independence
“THERE IS NO LIBERTY, IF THE POWER OF JUDGING BE NOT SEPARATED FROM THE LEGISLATIVE AND EXECUTIVE POWERS.” South Carolina state government is inordinately under control of the legislative branch.…
The Attorney General’s Appeal: An Analysis
“The lower court’s order is unprecedented in American law and unsupported by any known legal authority.” On May 19, Attorney General Alan Wilson filed an appeal with the Supreme Court…
Harrell v. Wilson: What’s at Stake?
IT’S MORE THAN A SPAT BETWEEN POLITICIANS One June 24, 2014, the Supreme Court will hear arguments about whether Judge Casey Manning ruled properly when he shut down the Attorney…
A Judge’s Misguided Ruling
IT’S NOT JUST WRONG. IT’S DANGEROUS. Judge Casey Manning’s recent ruling in the matter of the state grand jury investigation of House Speaker Bobby Harrell will, if allowed to stand,…
Sketchy Things Happening with the “Ethics Bill”
APPARENTLY THE PURPOSE OF “ETHICS REFORM” IS TO USE ALL AVAILABLE MEANS TO PROTECT POLITICIANS FROM SCRUTINY The more lawmakers amend the ethics bill, the more we’re put in mind of…
Lawmakers’ Latest Power Grab: Just the Facts
LEGISLATORS’ ARGUMENTS FAIL TO PERSUADE H.5072 – one of the most brazen acts of legislative retaliation we’ve ever witnessed – would allow the House and Senate to authorize a special prosecutor to investigate…
The Politician Protection Act?
ARE HOUSE MEMBERS USING THE LAW TO PROTECT SOMEONE? OR TO WARN SOMEONE? PERHAPS THEY SHOULD EXPLAIN. Over the last year, we’ve noticed a growing number of bills introduced for the…
The Ethics Bill: House vs. Senate
WHERE DOES THE ETHICS BILL STAND TODAY? The famous (and at times notorious) “ethics bill,” having recently passed the Senate, may soon head to conference committee. The House can propose…
Repairing the S.C. Public Service Commission
REFORM IS MEANINGLESS WHEN LEGISLATORS DOMINATE AND NO ONE IS ACCOUNTABLE In our legislatively dominated state, there’s practically no aspect of state government that the General Assembly doesn’t either dominate…
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,…