The Nerve

By RICK BRUNDRETT Last week, a legislatively controlled committee quietly approved five-figure salary hikes for six state agency heads, including increases for two university presidents whose total annual compensation is much more than their state pay. Medical University of South Carolina president David Cole received a $42,308, or 13.5%, raise from the state Agency Head […]

  By RICK BRUNDRETT Lawmakers just can’t resist trying to exert more power over another branch of government. Reps. John King, D-York; Annie McDaniel, D-Fairfield; and Wendy Brawley, D-Richland, prefiled a bill last week that would require separate majorities in the 124-member House and 46-member Senate to give final approval to any pay raises for […]

By RICK BRUNDRETT Since last December, 15 S.C. Senate staffers, including the chamber’s top administrator, received pay hikes of up to nearly 34%, The Nerve found in a review of chamber records. The top-paid staffer is Jeff Gossett, who, as the Senate clerk, manages the $16.3 million, 46-member chamber. He makes $225,000 annually, an increase […]

By RICK BRUNDRETT As University of South Carolina and Clemson University students return to in-person or online classes amid the coronavirus spread, what remains constant at the state’s two largest colleges is the growing number of well-paid employees. As of July 7, the 48,000-student USC, which has eight campuses statewide, had 1,193 employees earning at […]

By RICK BRUNDRETT South Carolina’s higher-level judges would receive pay hikes ranging from 20 to 33 percent under a state Judicial Department budget proposal and separate Senate bill. A revised 2018-19 budget plan submitted on Jan. 18 by the Judicial Department, which initially requested 10 percent across-the-board raises, would increase salaries for judges and justices […]