Regulating How the Housing Trust Fund is Administered
S.686 is a bill that makes slight adjustments to current law regulating the Housing Trust Fund: Removes the dollar figure from the definition of “affordable housing,” leaving it more open…
Adding Flexibility to the Sunset Provision of Local Sales Taxes
S.683 (and companion bill H.5078) amends the sunset provision in current state law for locally-imposed sales taxes. Under current law, a locally-imposed sales tax must not last longer than eight years. If…
Who Holds the General Assembly Accountable?
ANSWER: NO ONE. CONSIDER A RECENT ATTEMPT TO RAISE REVENUE IN THE SENATE. The General Assembly has long dominated South Carolina politics. Members of the House of Representative and Senate…
Creating Special Purpose Districts to Finance Energy Improvements
S.668 gives local governing bodies the ability to create a clean energy financing program (C-PACE program – commercial-property assessed clean energy program). The program would work like this: The governing…
Swapping Property Taxes on large commercial vehicles for “road use fees”
H.3948 would exempt large commercial motor vehicles (vehicles weighing over 2,600 pounds used for the transportation of property on a public highway) from property taxes. In place of property taxes…
BILL ANALYSIS: House Roads Plan
• Bill raises taxes on gasoline and motor vehicle sales. • Enacts a roughly $360 million tax hike next year. • Allows Infrastructure Bank to fund more projects, not fewer. • Gives…
Bill Would Impose Sales Tax on Web Purchases
LATEST ATTEMPT TO GET STATE HANDS ON NEW REVENUE MAY ENCOUNTER PROBLEMS OF LEGALITY, CONSTITUTIONALITY South Carolina’s sales tax is unfair in its imposition and isn’t producing enough revenue. At…
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…
Lawmakers Continue to Raid Victims’ Funds
IT’S MONEY. THEY WANT TO SPEND IT. THAT SETTLES IT. ANY QUESTIONS? In a little remarked upon move, South Carolina House members scrambled last month to insert line items from…
Replacing the Income Tax with a Flat Tax
H.3164 replaces the income tax with a 3.5% tax on adjusted gross income, and allows a tax forgiveness credit based on income level and dependents. The bill creates a set…
Broadening the Definition of “Cigarette for Tax Purposes
S.372 broadens the definition of “cigarette,” increasing the weight limitation from three pounds or less of tobacco per thousand to four and a half pounds per thousand. The new definition…
Requiring the Cigarette Tax to be Paid by Stamping Packaging
Companion bills S.595 and H.4151 change the method by which the cigarette tax is paid. Under current law, the cigarette tax is payable by distributors, who are required to make a monthly…
Requiring the DOR to Conduct Periodic Studies on the Results of Tax Incentives
H.3049 directs the Department of Revenue (DOR) to create a tax expenditure report every four years to determine the effectiveness and efficiency of economic development tax incentives issued by the…
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.…
Disclosing the effects of Job Credits to the Governor and Legislative Leaders
S.594 would add detail to the Jobs Tax Credit by requiring the Department of Revenue to issue a report containing the net number of new full-time jobs created in this…
Lengthening Time Before Reissuing New License Plates
H.3911 would add four years to the period before new license plates must be issued. Currently, new license plates must be provided every six years. This bill would lengthen that…
Creating a Music Therapy License and Advisory Group
S.589 creates a music therapy license and a Music Therapy Board, which will serve under the Director of the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. This bill is simply an…
Expanding the Medical Uses of Cannabidiol
S.584 would amend the SC Code regulating marijuana to create more flexibility for medical uses. Current law permits the use of cannabidiol (a non-psychoactive derivative of the cannabis plant) to…
Allowing Circuit Solicitors to Establish Mental Health Court Programs
S.426 would permit circuit solicitors to establish mental health court programs to serve “qualifying mentally ill offenders”. Any circuit solicitor that accepts state funding to create a mental health court…
Senate Moving Ahead with Fee, Tax Hikes
● Numerous and complicated tax and fee hikes. ● Constitutional issue addressed – briefly. ● Bill to come up in full Senate next week. The Senate Finance Committee had a productive…
UPDATE: House & Senate Road Proposals
DEBATE LIMITED TO ONE GOAL: HOW TO SEND MORE MONEY TO A BROKEN SYSTEM Tuesday’s Senate Finance Committee featured a lot of grandstanding but little action. Senators agreed to strike…
BILL ANALYSIS: New Regulations for Uber
H.3525 bears many similarities to H.3413 and S.409, two other bills introduced this session to create a regulatory framework for transportation network companies (TNCs), that is, companies that provide personal transportation arranged…
House Budget: Misplaced Priorities
THE HOUSE FOUND MONEY FOR SPECIAL INTERESTS PROJECTS, BUT NOT FOR CORE SERVICES The recent House-passed FY16 budget is the largest of the three versions of the budget released this…
New Fees on Cell Phones
S.277 would impose a monthly dual party relay charge of no more than 10 cents on cell phone service customers. The bill would also impose the same charge on every…
Self-Employment Assistance Program
H.3865 allows individuals who would not otherwise be eligible to draw unemployment benefits to receive them if they are engaged in “self-employment assistance activities”. Such activities include “entrepreneurial training, business…
Creating a new Road Use Fee for Large Commercial Motor Vehicles
H.3838 takes its provisions from other bills already filed, notably Senator Cleary’s S.523 and Senator Grooms S.23. Specifically, H.3838 would exempt large commercial motor vehicles (vehicles that are greater than…
Changing Natural Gas Tax Policy
H.3836 would subject natural gas to the same fuel tax that currently applies to gasoline but exempt it from the Inspection and environmental impact fee charged on petroleum products. The…
Licensing Hemp Growers
S.559 would require any person desiring to grow hemp in South Carolina apply for and receive a license from the Division of Regulatory and Public Service Programs at the College…
Free Speech, Electioneering, & Constitutionality: A South Carolina Debate
HOW A BILL IN THE S.C. SENATE WOULD RUN UP AGAINST THE U.S. CONSTITUTION AND U.S. SUPREME COURT PRECEDENT [Click here for a printable .pdf version of this report, and here for a short…