Taking the Power Back: Eight Reforms
HOW CAN WE MAKE SOUTH CAROLINA’S POLITICIANS THE LEAST POWERFUL AND MOST ACCOUNTABLE IN THE NATION? (1) Restore judicial independence. The public deserves confidence that judges rule independently of the…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Unlawful Seizure of Cell Phones: What Would George Mason Say?
LIKE IT OR NOT, THE FOURTH AMENDMENT EXISTS Among the few excellent bills filed during the 2013 legislative session – and analyzed in our Best & Worst guide (download here)…
The Ethics Bill Is Back
THREE PROVISIONS THAT SHOULD BE AMENDED, PRONTO Today, a Senate Select Committee on Ethics will consider H.3945, the ethics bill that failed to make it out of the Senate last…
S.C. Public Education & the Common Core Zeitgeist
A RECENT EDUCATION OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE MEETING SUGGESTS JUST HOW MUCH POWER WE’RE GIVING AWAY “Security has asked me to advise that they are in attendance. If there are any outbursts…
Road Funding Priorities Run Further Amok
S.C.’S ROAD POLICY: BUILD NEW ROADS WITHOUT FIXING EXISTING ONES Since the close of the 2013 legislative session, the confused priorities of the state’s transportation authorities have been on full…
Is South Carolina Really All That ‘Pro-Gun’?
OUR LAWS MIGHT SURPRISE YOU A great deal of coverage was given recently to South Carolina’s successful wooing of Connecticut gun manufacturer PTR Industries concentrated on state officials’ – and…
Project Conflict Watch: The SEI Response
WHY STATEMENTS OF ECONOMIC INTERESTS DON’T MATTER Earlier this year, the Policy Council launched Project Conflict Watch, an initiative asking state elected officials to disclose their sources of private income…
Common Core in South Carolina: FAQs
WHAT IS IT? HOW MUCH DOES IT COST? AND WHAT CAN BE DONE ABOUT IT? Over the past several weeks, a great deal of controversy and discussions have arisen on…
Why Ethics Reform?
2013 WAS SUPPOSED TO BE THE ‘YEAR OF ETHICS REFORM.’ IT WASN’T. SO DOES ANYONE CARE? At the conclusion of the 2013 legislative session, as the Senate prepared to vote…
Income Disclosure—Why It Matters
THIS ISN’T JUST A THEORETICAL DEBATE With the launch of SCPC’s Project Conflict Watch – and now with the release by Senator Vincent Sheheen of his tax returns and challenge…
The State Budget Shouldn’t Take This Long
WHY THE BUDGET TAKES HALF A YEAR TO PASS, AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT It has become an almost yearly tradition for the South Carolina General Assembly to use…
The Ethics Reform That Isn’t
CLEARLY, LAWMAKERS HAD GOOD REASONS TO KEEP H.3945 SECRET The talk this week has been mainly about the ill-named ethics reform bill being debated in the South Carolina House. It’s…
An “Enterprise Division” for Clemson?
IT’S ALL ABOUT POWER (A LOT OF IT) AND ACCOUNTABILITY (NONE OF IT) Last week, we posted a brief analysis of S.535, legislation that would create a murky new government…
ObamaCare Light?
THE HOUSE GOP ‘ALTERNATIVE’ TO OBAMACARE AND THE WINNERS & LOSERS OF SOUTH CAROLINA’S HEALTH CARE DEBATE We recently reported that House Republicans introduced an alternative plan to ObamaCare in…
Testimony before Commission on Ethics Reform
LANDESS ASKS GOVERNOR’S COMMISSION ON ETHICS REFORM TO CONSIDER DEPTH OF PROBLEM Thank you for this second opportunity to speak to you today. We at the SCPC
Abolishing the Ethics Committees
CAN SOMETHING SO SIMPLE REALLY BE SO DIFFICULT? Among the state’s commentators and editorialists, ethics reform is expected to be the issue of the 2013 legislative session. What exactly “ethics…
Ethics Reform: Some Re-Gifting Ideas
A FEW IDEAS WORTH KEEPING FOR NEXT YEAR . . . The 2013 legislative session will begin in January, and many lawmakers and pundits have predicted that this will be…
Freedom of Information?
FOR A ‘FREEDOM OF INFORMATION’ LAW, OURS DOESN’T ALLOW VERY MUCH INFORMATION Want information about the way a state agency uses your tax dollars? Here’s the good news: nearly every…
The Rules Apply to Everyone. (Except Us.)
WHY THE HOUSE & SENATE ETHICS COMMITTEES SHOULDN’T EXIST – AND WHY IT MATTERS South Carolina is often said – correctly – to be dominated by the legislature. What does…
UPDATE: The House version of the DOA bill
The House of Representatives has finally unveiled their amendment to the Department of Administration bill – after crafting it behind closed doors for more than two months. It sailed through…
State Government Charges for Public Information
Despite constant proclamations from state officials about their commitment to transparency, the Policy Council and The Nerve have thoroughly documented how difficult it is in South Carolina to get state…
Government De-Structuring?
Yesterday the Senate passed what many are calling the most significant restructuring plan this state has seen in decades. By a vote of 44-0, the South Carolina Senate passed H.3066…
Government restructuring – Reform or status quo?
South Carolina elected officials claim to be restructuring government, but is anything changing? Are we moving toward real separation of powers, or is the status quo being preserved? Below are…
Getting restructuring right – or wrong?
The state Senate is currently debating what could turn out to be the most important piece of government restructuring legislation to come along in a quarter-century. Among other things, the…
Creating a Department of Administration – An Update
A new amendment to the Department of Administration bill has hit the Senate floor. Although it’s a moving target, here’s an overview of what the bill would do with state…
Restructuring Done Right: Separate and Diffuse Power, Concentrate Accountability
The Senate is currently considering legislation (H 3066) that would eliminate the Budget & Control Board (BCB), devolving the BCB’s responsibilities to a cabinet-level Department of Administration and a newly…