The Nerve

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 […]

Better hope they graded on a curve By HANNAH HILL At the SC Policy Council site, we’ve put together a post-session update detailing what the legislature did and didn’t do. So now let’s take a step back and look at the bigger picture: What did our lawmakers accomplish and what does it mean for you, the […]

  You could always Google it By ELISABETH ALLEN When it comes to keeping lucrative companies in South Carolina, state government will do just about anything — including, we fear, throwing common sense to the wayside by ignoring the environment, the interests of surrounding communities, and fairness in the marketplace. We see it in the […]

Readers react to our take on rights Last week, we ran a piece by Hannah Hill, “It’s the right, not the gun,” that inspired quite a few responses. Hannah argued that a bill in the state Senate that would allow people to keep their guns when they have to give up most of their assets […]

A new bill misunderstands the Second Amendment By HANNAH HILL This week the Senate Judiciary Committee passed a bill that would allow individuals filing for bankruptcy to keep up to three guns worth up to $3,000 total. In South Carolina, bankruptcy filers are allowed to keep a home, car, tools of a trade, and so […]

If this is the way it’s done, why have hearings and votes at all? By DUNCAN TAYLOR While the Senate was busy debating the gas tax hike this week, the House decided to reinsert itself into the argument – but not in any normal way. On Wednesday afternoon, House leaders placed their version of the […]

As the Senate debates, reason flies out the window By HANNAH HILL The state Senate began debating the gas-tax hike (their version of the bill is a straight-up tax hike of 12 cents a gallon) this week. Whenever large groups of politicians talk for long periods of time, you hear some real gems. Here are […]

This legislative interference never ends By HANNAH HILL An interesting bill was filed in the House last week. H.4091 would abolish the five-member board of the Pioneer Rural Water District (currently elected by its customers) and replace it with a seven-member board selected by the Oconee and Anderson County legislative delegations. At the end of […]

Sneak attack on liquor stores pops up in budget By PHILLIP CEASE Yesterday, during the budget debate, the Senate took up an interesting piece of legislation. Amendment 39 would require any retail liquor dealer that wanted more than three stores to pay a fee “equal to the average gross sales” for each of the retailer’s […]