The State Budget: What You’re Spending in 2017
GOVERNMENT OUTPACING THE ECONOMY – BY A LOT The General Assembly just passed a $27.42 billion budget – by far the largest in state history and a $1.1 billion increase from…
Why the Governor’s Budget Won’t Be Debated
SOUTH CAROLINA’S EXECUTIVE BUDGET GETS IGNORED – AND THAT’S HOW LAWMAKERS LIKE IT On websites and editorial pages across the nation, Americans are debating President Donald Trump’s proposed budget. The president’s…
‘Small’ $497 Million Bond Bill to Hit Ways & Means
PAYING FOR ROUTINE RENOVATIONS WITH DEBT HAS BECOME A THING Update: The final version of the committee bill ended up being $497 million, nearly half of which is going to higher…
House Passes $27.3 Billion Budget
‘CONSERVATIVE’ BUDGET A FULL BILLION DOLLARS BIGGER THAN LAST YEAR’S Late Tuesday night the House passed by far the largest budget in state history, as it usually does this time of…
Ready to Watch Lawmakers Not Follow the Law?
THE STATE BUDGET LAW – WHAT IT IS, WHY IT MATTERS, WHY LAWMAKERS IGNORE IT Debate over the state budget has already started, but you don’t know anything about it.…
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…
Budget Process Remains Secretive
THERE’S ONLY ONE WAY TO ACHIEVE BUDGET TRANSPARENCY, AND THAT’S TO FOLLOW THE LAW The budget debate this session was one of the most bizarre we’ve seen yet. It wasn’t that…
Why S.C. Lawmakers Can’t Pass a Budget on Time
EVERY YEAR, LAWMAKERS TRY TO PASS POTENTIALLY CONTROVERSIAL CHANGES THROUGH THE STATE BUDGET. BUT NOT EVERY PROBLEM IS A FUNDING PROBLEM. Legislators returned to Columbia July 6 for a third…
State Budget Sets Records, Vetoes Make Zero Difference
THE STATE BUDGET IS A TRANSACTION BETWEEN TAXPAYERS AND GOVERNMENT. HERE’S WHAT YOU’RE BUYING. After being rushed through a secretive committee process, the fiscal year (FY) 2016 conference budget –…
UPDATE: Surplus, Capital Reserve, Sine Die, Uber
SESSION IS OVER … ALMOST The third week in June ended on a tragic note in the General Assembly, and attention has rightly been away from legislative business. In the interests…
Why S.C.’s Deeper in Debt Than They Say
THE HOUSE IS DEBATING A $497 BOND PACKAGE. IT’S TERRIBLE IDEA, FOR LOTS OF REASONS. NOW TAKE A LOOK AT WHAT LAWMAKERS WANT TO SPEND THE MONEY ON. This week the House will…
Gov. Haley’s Budget: Same Deal, More Money
THE GOVERNOR DOUBLES DOWN, PHONES IT IN Update* Budget documents prepared by the Executive Budget Office not available at the time of initial publication reveal an even larger executive budget. The…
What Will the State Do with the Surplus?
PROBABLY NOT WHAT CHESTER ARTHUR WOULD HAVE DONE You might have recently heard that South Carolina ended the fiscal year with a higher-than-expected surplus – a surplus big enough to…
Governor Vetoes 0.07 Percent of the State Budget
HOORAY FOR LIMITED GOVERNMENT, RIGHT? After the General Assembly rammed through a record high $25.5 billion state budget with little public debate, Governor Nikki Haley had the opportunity to make…
State Budget: Enough to Fund Roads Already
THE GOOD NEWS: THE STATE HAS ENOUGH TO FUND ROADS. THE BAD NEWS: LAWMAKERS WILL NEED TO GO WITHOUT PAY HIKES, CORPORATE WELFARE, AND PORK. State budgets are a big deal.…
Hey Senators, Here’s What to Cut
WE KNOW, YOU WON’T CUT MUCH. BUT COULD YOU AT LEAST SKIM A LITTLE? The Senate is set to take up the budget recently approved by the Senate Finance Committee.…
State Budget Skyrockets in Ten Years
SO THIS IS THEIR IDEA OF “CONSERVATIVE” BUDGETING? Despite South Carolina politicians’ claims over the past decade that South Carolina has a “conservative” budget, the FY 2014-15 budget passed by…
The Ways & Means Budget Is Here
SHORT VERSION: MASSIVE HIKES FOR THE USUAL SUSPECTS The House will begin debate on another record high budget today. At $25.4 billion (assuming a $1.5 billion food stamp item…
Contract, Clarity, and a Return to Sovereignty
HOW TO STOP FEDERAL COERCION – INCLUDING OBAMACARE – AND ENACT FREE MARKET REFORM [PDF of full report here; a briefer version of the report here.] For three years, policy…
What Will Gov. Haley Veto?
DO TAXPAYERS WANT TO PAY FOR EVERYTHING IN THIS YEAR’S $24.3 BILLION BUDGET? Last year, Governor Nikki Haley vetoed $57.1 million of a $23.6 billion budget – less than…
Bureaucratic Middle Men in State Government
FOR GOVERNMENT, IT TAKES A LOT OF MONEY TO SPEND MONEY South Carolina’s state budget now tops $24 billion – a staggering sum (and just to put that in…
Another Useless Attempt to Cap Spending
IT WON’T CAP SPENDING IF GOVERNMENT GETS TO KEEP THE MONEY Yet another legislative session is about to pass in which there was some talk about controlling state spending, but…
Is State Government Shrinking – or Growing?
TAXPAYERS ARE GETTING POORER. GOVERNMENT ISN’T. Lately a number of commentators have tried to make the case that South Carolina is already a lean model of low taxes and limited…
Capital “Reserve” Fund?
SINCE WHEN DOES ‘RESERVE’ MEAN ‘SLUSH’? As has become a yearly tradition, legislators have voted to raid the Capital Reserve Fund to funnel money to their own pet projects. The…
Budget Transparency: How to Get There
STEP NO. 1: ELIMINATE THE HALF THAT ALMOST NOBODY CAN READ Each fiscal year, the South Carolina state budget is split into two major pieces: Part 1A and Part 1B.…
How (and How Not) to Cap Government Spending
A WEAK LIMIT IS WORSE THAN NO LIMIT If the last few legislative sessions prove anything, it’s that almost nothing can compel state lawmakers to exercise spending restraint. A report…