The Nerve

At the beach, home rule is in the bag By ROBERT MEYEROWITZ One thing we can safely say about the election last November is that it was divisive, or at least that it has done little to heal the country’s divisions. The smoke had barely cleared (some would say it still hasn’t) when Richard Florida, […]

South Carolina’s murky world of tomorrow By ROBERT MEYEROWITZ South Carolina, like every other state, is in the business of building roads. It’s a big business: Four of the top 10 vendors for the state in 2016 were roads contractors, accounting for $175 million in spending alone. And that doesn’t reckon the opportunity cost — […]

Higher ed regrets governor’s veto By ROBERT MEYEROWITZ On Monday, Governor Henry McMaster vetoed a welter of items in the budget that was passed by the legislature last week, including a proviso that touched upon the authority of the Commission on Higher Education. Last week, a Nerve opinion piece, “How to hamstring a watchdog,” laid […]

That goes quintuple for higher ed By ROBERT MEYEROWITZ How big should the public sector be, relative to the private, and how well should it compensate its workers? These are questions that ignite wars among economists and ideologues, but there is some consensus: The average value of pay and benefits in the private sector has […]

You have to manage a hedge fund to get it By ROBERT MEYEROWITZ Legislators finalized a budget deal this week that was thought to have patched up the underfunded public employees’ pension plan. While it goes some way to addressing funding, it doesn’t do much to address the fund’s investing and spending. There’s been much […]

It could be hurting our cities By ROBERT MEYEROWITZ Talk of cutting federal funding to cities has hung in the American air like burnt gunpowder since the last election — but how much of a threat is it, really? Could it even be a blessing in disguise? That’s some of the gist of a recent piece […]

Seven weeks later, the state Senate still hasn’t approved one By ROBERT MEYEROWITZ Reforms to the state Ethics Commission were due to be enacted as of April 1 of this year, but if you visited its website lately, and looked at the space where the eight members of the commission should be listed, you’d have […]

Mike Wooten’s term expired 11 weeks ago, yet there he is By ROBERT MEYEROWITZ There’s been a lot of talk of reform around the South Carolina statehouse recently — specifically, of reforming the state Department of Transportation. This has occurred in both the House and Senate as each chamber crafted and passed bills to raise […]

From agency to chamber to General Assembly, the money goes round By ROBERT MEYEROWITZ The South Carolina Chamber of Commerce, along with various local chambers of commerce in the state, has been busy lately. The chambers, which periodically lobby state government for more spending, among other things, have been especially vocal about wanting the gas […]

Research authority is paying political operative more than 850K By ROBERT MEYEROWITZ The South Carolina Research Authority, chartered by the state in 1983 to “foster and enrich South Carolina’s innovation economy,” has paid political consultant Bob McAlister at least $855,500 since 2011. The payments are all to McAlister’s firm, McAlister Communications, most in consistent monthly amounts […]