The Nerve

By RICK BRUNDRETT As lawmakers this week consider sale and management proposals involving Santee Cooper, one issue that likely won’t get much attention is the growth in recent years of well-paid workers at the state-owned utility. Of Santee Cooper’s approximately 1,650 full-time employees, 312, or 18.9% of the total, receive a base annual salary of […]

By RICK BRUNDRETT The possibility that two more ex-lawmakers could join the state Public Service Commission – with six-figure salaries – highlights a longstanding tradition of legislators giving well-paying jobs to their former colleagues, relatives and friends. On Friday, the six-legislator, 10-member State Regulation of Public Utilities Review Committee (PURC), which nominates PSC candidates for […]

By RICK BRUNDRETT When it comes to debt, the state of South Carolina is swimming in billions of it. Yet an important report on the state’s finances, issued by Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom – the state’s chief accountant – and considered a key document by credit rating agencies in evaluating state debt, according to an […]

Update: On 2/6/19, the Legislature in a joint session voted 99-1 to elect former longtime PSC attorney Florence Belser to the congressional District 2 PSC seat after incumbent Elliott Elam withdrew from the race. The only lawmaker who voted against Belser was Rep. Jonathon Hill, R-Anderson. By RICK BRUNDRETT After nearly a year and a […]

By RICK BRUNDRETT S.C. lawmakers have once again delayed filling a $107,822 seat on the state Public Service Commission, which routinely approved electric rate hikes for the failed V.C. Summer nuclear project. A screening hearing for PSC Seat 2, which was supposed to have been held Monday of this week, was postponed, according to a […]

By RICK BRUNDRETT An incumbent state Public Service Commission member, a past commissioner and an ex-PSC attorney are among six candidates who have applied for a PSC seat in a “do-over” election imposed by lawmakers in May. The former PSC attorney, who dropped out of a May race for another PSC seat, recently moved so […]

By RICK BRUNDRETT The legislatively controlled committee that nominates candidates for full-time, six-figure seats on the S.C. Public Service Commission, which sets rates for private utility customers, has no written criteria for making its final choices. On paper, qualifying as a candidate for the seven-member PSC – which approved nine electric rate increases and signed […]

By RICK BRUNDRETT On the last day of regular session Thursday, S.C. lawmakers in an unrecorded voice vote effectively approved a “do-over” election for a state Public Service Commission seat, allowing the incumbent to stay on months after his term expires and the opportunity to decide on matters related to the controversial V.C. Summer project. […]

By RICK BRUNDRETT On Thursday – the last day of the General Assembly’s regular session and when most state government offices will be closed for a holiday – lawmakers are set to fill three open seats on the S.C. Public Service Commission, the state regulatory agency that routinely approved electric rate hikes for the failed […]

By RICK BRUNDRETT Three out-of-state consulting businesses hired by the S.C. Legislature to provide “advice” on the V.C. Summer fiasco have submitted bills totaling more than $230,000, though only one firm has produced a written report. To put the $232,379 public tab in some perspective, it could cover the failed nuclear project portion of about […]