The South Carolina Policy Council Archive

H.3562 would allow counties via referendum to impose a new 1 percent sales tax in order to fund a credit against local school property tax. Essentially localities would be able…

Companion bills H.3534  and S.185 would expand the number of higher education institutions eligible to receive funding from the South Carolina Higher Education Excellence Enhancement Program (itself funded by the lottery). Specifically…

Companion bills H.3539 and S.437 would launch the “James B. Edwards Civics Education Initiative.” As part of the required curriculum for secondary public and charter schools, as well as the GED curriculum, this…

H.3513 proposes a permanent salary increase of 5% for any and all school district employees earning less than $25,000, or its hourly equivalent. This would affect positions such as crossing…

One consistent aspect of law is that it usually reflects the conditions of society as a whole. In the case of H.3510, the condition addressed by this proposed bill is…

H.3511 would create a new tax deduction for nurses and physicians who work in a free clinic. The deduction would accrue at an hourly rate with a maximum size of…

H.3508 is somewhat similar to H.3078 in that it would authorize nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, and certified nurse midwives (referred to in the bill as APRNs) to perform certain…

H.3488 would allow pharmacists to refill topical ophthalmic products without obtaining a new prescription from a medical practitioner. The bill would also allow practitioners other than pharmacists to “authorize refills earlier…

H.3580 is Governor Haley’s plan to fix South Carolina’s roads, first described during the 2015 state of the state address. The bill attempts to reform the management of the Department…

Update: the bill was amended in committee to require a medical diagnosis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Companion bills S.429 and H.3699 are similar to last session’s H.3147. The bills would add a special exception to…

S.428 would prohibit any individual from working as a manager or server on a premise licensed to sell alcoholic beverages unless that individual obtains a server permit from the Department…

S.413 would permit the Board of Medical Examiners- upon recommendation of the Joint Pharmacist Administered Vaccines Committee- to authorize pharmacists to administer select vaccines. The vaccines which may be administered in…

S.406 may be the worst gas tax/roads bill introduced this session. The bill would allow the quasi legislative quasi executive State Fiscal Accountability Authority (SFAA) (a successor to the Budget…

‘STATE HOUSE ECONOMICS’ AT ITS FINEST The state’s roads are crumbling, according to the popular refrain, and the Department of Transportation (DOT) claims it faces a nearly $43 billion shortfall between…

S.380 reforms South Carolina’s asset forfeiture laws by stipulating that all property subject to forfeiture reform may not be seized by an investigating agency prior to a criminal conviction. Other provision…

S.382 would allow the agency head of South Carolina State University to impose mandatory employee furloughs of up to 20 working days per year in the next two years. This is…

Potential judges and candidates for non-judicial state offices elected by the General Assembly must be screened by the Judicial Merit Selection Committee (JMSC) or a joint legislative screening committee respectively…

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…

H.3464 would stipulate that a license from the State Board of Barber Examiners is required to operate a barber school in South Carolina. Under current law barber colleges and their…

H.3453 would establish that students enrolled in public institutions of higher education or student organizations have the right to be represented by an attorney or “nonattorney advocate” at a “disciplinary proceeding…

H.3451 would allow a supervising anesthesiologist to supervise up to 4 anesthesiologist assistants instead of the 2 currently permitted by state law. Permitting anesthesiologists to supervise an increased number of assistants…

H.3450 would mandate that no beer, wine, or liquor wholesaler deliver any of these alcoholic beverages to an alcohol retailer until they have been “received unloaded, and stored or warehoused at…

H.3448 is a reintroduction of last session’s S.936. Like last session’s bill H.3448 would require the owner of an air ambulance to obtain a permit from the Department of Health and…

H.3445 would impose two new 7 cent per gallon taxes on motor fuels including gasoline. Combined these two new taxes would nearly double the current state gas tax. All of the…

H.3431 would prohibit any political subdivisions of the state (any form of local government) from requiring employers to provide any form of employee benefits. Employee benefits are defined as “anything of…

Companion bills H.3429 and S.473 would slowly restore the funding level of the local government fund (LGF) over three years until it once again received its full legally required funding amount (4.5% of…

H.3427 would make forfeit any retirement benefits a public office holder may have accrued during their time in office if during that time in office they are convicted, plead guilty, or…

H.3414 would continue a legislative push begun in 2014 by allowing Board of Trustees of the College of Charleston (COC) to designate the institution a research university. Last year’s push began…

H.3419 would make the offense of unlawfully carrying a handgun a felony with a potential penalty of a $10,000 fine and 10 years in prison. Under current law unlawful carrying…

Companion bills H.3413 and S.409 are an attempt to allow ridesharing companies (Uber and other similar services) to operate legally without having to obtain class c certificates from the public service commission as is…