The Nerve

Not peachy-keen on tax-credit schemes By HANNAH HILL Tax credits can be some of the worst policies a government can pass. Taxes, as a rule, should be broad-based (everybody pays them) and low-rate (nobody pays much). Tax credits usually violate that principle – after all, tax cuts are different from tax favors. The former lowers […]

Consulting jobs for ex-agency heads are costly and unnecessary By ABBY NUGENT According to a contract obtained by the Post and Courier, the former head of the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, Catherine Templeton, accepted a contract with the agency just one day after she left her position in January of 2015. […]

When economic development becomes a state priority, citizens lose control By HANNAH HILL As the Policy Council has been compiling this year’s Best and Worst of the General Assembly, I couldn’t help noticing a recurring theme: economic development-related bills. Some are overt, like one that would create two new programs and a grant fund to […]

There’s always work to do By HANNAH HILL The Declaration of Independence wasn’t about revolution. Here’s what it says: “We hold these truths to be self-evident… that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men… that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to […]

With this commission, there will always be problems By HANNAH HILL When Mike Wooten resigned from the state Department of Transportation commission, he blamed the ethics provisions in the gas tax hike bill just passed by the General Assembly, saying “The new law basically states that commissioners cannot apply for permits from SCDOT, so, if […]

Governor should call time on DOT commission By HANNAH HILL In less than a week, Governor Henry McMaster will acquire the power to fire any or all the Department of Transportation’s commissioners. It was a DOT-reform element in the the gas tax bill that was passed this year. It takes effect July 1. The commission […]

Mike Wooten, commission expired, resigns By ROBERT MEYEROWITZ State Department of Transportation Commissioner Mike Wooten resigned his post today, ending a controversial tenure on the board. John Hardee, the commission’s vice-chairman, confirmed Wooten’s departure. Wooten, who runs an engineering firm in Myrtle Beach, was elected by the state legislature to the commission four years ago. […]

Judicial selection committee has a new member: a former senator By HANNAH HILL The state’s Judicial Merit Selection Committee screens and nominates judicial candidates. Its members are picked by the House Speaker and the Senate President Pro Tem. State law requires that four of the ten be “selected from the general public” (the other six […]

Legislature cripples higher ed commission By ELISABETH PARKER The state’s higher education sector keeps growing, in no small part by borrowing to expand and taking on debt that ultimately puts every taxpayer on the hook. No matter the merits of funding education, there ought to be oversight and accountability here. That role is vested in the […]

If legislators followed the law, this wouldn’t happen By HANNAH HILL The legislative session and the special extended session have ended, and we still don’t have a budget. Currently the budget sits in conference committee where lawmakers seem to be agonizing over the differences between the House’s $27.41 billion spending plan and the Senate’s $27.42 billion spending […]