Legislature Passes ‘Independent Investigation’ Bill
THE GOVERNOR HAS SIGNED IT, BUT VERY LITTLE HAS CHANGED In 2012, the Policy Council began calling for the abolition of the legislature’s power to police its own members’ ethics…
Ethics Reform Bills Aim for Status Quo
ON INCOME DISCLOSURE AND LEGISLATIVE SELF-POLICING, LAWMAKERS WANT CREDIT FOR REFORM WITHOUT CHANGING THE SYSTEM At the moment, the two hottest issues in the State House going under the banner…
UPDATE: Senate Addresses Ethics Legislation
THE SENATE BILL IS GONE. THE HOUSE BILL IS BACK. WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN? The ethics debate in the Senate got very interesting this week as the Senate took…
Giant Ethics Bill to Hit Senate Floor
ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THIS YEARS ETHICS DEBATE On April 5, 2016, the South Carolina Senate will begin debating the omnibus ethics-related bill that is currently on special…
Why the Latest Ethics Bill Would Change Nothing
● Bill includes unaccountable exceptions to private income disclosure ● Actually weakens public income disclosure requirement ● Legislative self-policing rearranged, not abolished ● Allows ethics committees to sign off – in secret…
Senate’s Latest Version of ‘Ethics Reform’
DANGEROUS ‘ELECTIONEERING’ PROVISION SCRAPPED, BUT LEGISLATION STILL CONSISTS MAINLY OF REGRESSIVE NON-REFORMS The Senate Judiciary Committee has just passed another omnibus ethics bill, H.3184. The bill has a tortured history, having…
Ending Legal Corruption – A Progress Report
● House bill on self-policing further empowers legislature. ● House income disclosure bills still full of loopholes. ● House FOIA reform bill still allows lawmaker exemption. The 2016 legislative session has begun…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
The Ethics Bill: Still Alive, for Now
THE STICKING POINT: SELF-POLICING A House Judiciary subcommittee met on Tuesday to once again take up the “ethics bill” – H.3945. Versions of the bill have already passed both the…
Last Minute Chances at Ethics Reform?
THE CLOCK IS TICKING… An omnibus “ethics” bill has passed the House and the Senate in different versions. That bill, which could be considered more of an income disclosure bill…
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…
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…
Why Tax Reform Can’t Happen (Yet)
THINK THERE ARE GREAT ARGUMENTS FOR ELIMINATING THE CORPORATE INCOME TAX? SO DOES ALMOST EVERYONE ELSE. AND YET . . . In a red, “conservative” state like South Carolina,…
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…
Half Time Ethics Report
It’s the beginning of April and lawmakers‘ two-week furlough is almost up, leaving us at roughly the half-way point of the 2013 legislative session. This was supposed to be the…
Testimony before Commission on Ethics Reform
LANDESS ASKS GOVERNOR’S COMMISSION ON ETHICS REFORM TO CONSIDER DEPTH OF PROBLEM [Note: the following is testimony by SCPC President Ashley Landess before Gov. Nikki Haley’s Commission on…
Why the State’s Open Budget Law Matters
LAWMAKERS SHOULD QUIT MAKING EXCUSES AND FOLLOW THE LAW Two years ago, the Policy Council discovered a provision in state law requiring House and Senate appropriations committees to meet…
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 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…
Who Investigates?
IS THERE A ‘CONTROLLING LEGAL AUTHORITY’ HERE? In 1997, when Vice President Al Gore was questioned about suspicious campaign fund-raising activities, he claimed repeatedly that he didn’t know it was…
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 that…