Golden Parachute for State Attorney General?
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
Longtime state attorney general Alan Wilson could receive bigger retirement paychecks under legislation sponsored by two House leaders who also are lawyers.
The bill, sponsored by Reps. Murrell Smith, R-Sumter, who is the House Ways and Means Committee chairman, and Chris Murphy, R-Dorchester, who is the House Judiciary Committee chairman, would allow Wilson to move from the retirement system covering general state employees to the retirement system covering judges and solicitors, effective July 1.
- Hits: 158
Gas Tax Credit Still Unpopular, State Concedes
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
An income tax credit that S.C. lawmakers created in 2017 to offset the state gasoline tax hike has been relatively unpopular so far, records show.
And state revenue forecasters are now admitting it.
After two years of wrongly predicting that taxpayers would claim the maximum-allowed amount of income tax credits, the state Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office (RFA) is predicting that taxpayers this year collectively will claim nearly $60 million less than the cap set by law, according to a letter from RFA director Frank Rainwater to Hartley Powell, director of the S.C. Department of Revenue (DOR).
- Hits: 175
Commerce Approves Hundreds of Large-Crowd Events Amid Covid Outbreak
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
Since Gov. Henry McMaster in August gave the state Department of Commerce – which isn’t a public health agency – the authority to allow large-crowd events in South Carolina amid the coronavirus outbreak, the agency has approved more than 1,300 applications, records show.
Through Thursday morning, Commerce approved 1,345, or 90%, of the total 1,489 submitted applications, The Nerve found in a review of the department’s online applications database. Seventeen approved applications involved estimated crowds, either on a single day or collectively over a longer time period, of at least 10,000.
- Hits: 174
Restoring Election Integrity Begins With State Legislatures
- By Peter Rykowski - The New American
As Americans saw, the 2020 presidential election was beset with fraud and irregularities. Although it is too late to rectify the 2020 election, voter fraud remains a clear and existential threat to the Republic’s electoral system. Fortunately, there is much that state legislatures can do.
Both Article I, Section 4, and Article II, Section 1, of the United States Constitution give state legislatures primary authority over setting the rules for federal elections. The first step toward restoring confidence in American elections is for legislators to reclaim their constitutional power from judges and executive branch bureaucrats.
- Hits: 250
State Court System Won’t Reveal Key Details on Judicial Discipline
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
For the second time in recent months, the S.C. Judicial Department has sided with secrecy about how the court system operates.
In October, the department denied The Nerve’s request under the state Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) for a list of judicial staff making at least $50,000 annually – records which are considered public for any government agency under the FOIA.
- Hits: 210
A First With The Gas-Tax-Hike Law – And It’s Little To Celebrate
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
2020 ended with a first in the 3½ years of the gas-tax-hike law, though many South Carolina motorists probably won’t be happy about it.
As of Dec. 31, more revenues were collected under the law, which took effect July 1, 2017, than the total estimated cost of all road and bridge projects identified by the S.C. Department of Transportation to be paid with the money, recently released agency records show.
- Hits: 175
Top Lawmakers’ Campaign Spending Didn’t Stop with Re-election
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
Over the last three months of 2020, the November general election wasn’t the only expense that top S.C. lawmakers covered with campaign funds.
The Nerve’s review of the latest campaign-spending reports filed this month by Senate and House leaders found that a number of them spent some of their campaign funds on sponsorships and other donations to their favorite charities, membership dues to various organizations, and gifts to their staffs or constituents.
- Hits: 258
Health Agency Slowly Spending Covid Money
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
A state House proposal would send an additional $63 million out of state surplus funds to the Department of Health and Environmental Control to speed up COVID-19 vaccinations and continue testing statewide.
But DHEC has spent only about 60% of the $45 million in state surplus funds awarded to the agency last March to combat the coronavirus, and less than a third of the collective $261 million in federal funding received since the outbreak hit South Carolina, The Nerve found in a review of the agency’s latest spending report.
- Hits: 205
Plenty of Pork in Governor’s Proposed State Spending Plan
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
In touting Gov. Henry McMaster’s proposed fiscal 2022 state budget, his office in a recent news release contended it “significantly invests in the state’s core functions of government” while “maintaining his commitment” to “fiscally responsible practices.”
But although emergency spending in response to the coronavirus outbreak in South Carolina likely will continue in the fiscal year that starts July 1, McMaster’s proposed nearly $30.8 billion state budget also contains a number of pricey, questionable items, a review by The Nerve found, including, for example:
- Hits: 258
Lawmakers Want to Grow Size of State’s Top Court – and Their Control Over Judges
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
The powerful S.C. House speaker, who controls half of the appointments on a committee that nominates judges for election in the Legislature, wants to expand the size of the state’s highest court and eliminate the cap on judicial nominees.
Rep. Jay Lucas, R-Darlington, is the main sponsor of a joint resolution calling for an amendment to the state constitution that would increase the total number of justices on the S.C. Supreme Court from five to seven, and a related bill that would keep the General Assembly in control of electing those judges for 10-year terms.
- Hits: 234
Priorities Ignored in Awarding Covid Grants to Some SC Nonprofits?
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
In announcing recently that 686 nonprofit organizations in South Carolina would receive a total of $25 million in federal coronavirus-relief grants, state officials said the recipients received a “successful due diligence review” by a legislatively created panel.
A state Department of Administration (SCDOA) spokeswoman told The Nerve last week in a written response that priority was given to organizations that provided services in one or more of the following categories:
- Hits: 301
Lawmakers Continue Looking After Their Own Business Interests
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
As lawmakers return to Columbia this week to consider big issues such as the ongoing response to the coronavirus outbreak in South Carolina and the possible sale of state-owned utility Santee Cooper, some legislators are introducing bills that ultimately could fatten their own wallets.
And state law allows it.
Take Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg, for example.
- Hits: 346
New Year, Same Road Problems Persist in SC
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
If one of your New Year’s resolutions is to drive over pothole-free roads in South Carolina, you probably should choose a different goal.
The Nerve’s review of recently released state Department of Transportation records found that since the gas-tax-hike law took effect July 1, 2017, through Nov. 30 of last year, the total dollar amount of completed “pavements” projects statewide remained less than half of the estimated cost of all such projects.
- Hits: 303
Lawmaker-Controlled Panel Violates State Law – Again
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
A legislatively controlled committee has once again violated a state law requiring that it provide the General Assembly with written individual evaluations of S.C. Public Service Commission members.
The seven-member PSC’s authority includes setting utility rates for investor-owned gas and electric utilities. The PSC is holding additional public hearings this week on a proposed nearly 8% electric rate hike for Dominion Energy customers – after The Nerve raised questions about the public-comment process.
- Hits: 216
Attorney Who Works in SC Senator’s Law Firm One Step Closer to Judgeship
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
With 2021 nearly here, S.C. lawmakers likely won’t be making any New Year’s resolutions to loosen their tight grip on the state court system.
Legislative leaders have shown little interest in giving up power over the judicial selection process – which often favors friends and business associates of lawmakers.
Sen. Scott Talley, R-Spartanburg, the newest member of the state judicial screening committee, was appointed just two months before the legislatively controlled panel qualified an attorney – who works in Talley’s law firm – as a candidate for a judgeship to oversee cases in areas of law practiced by the firm.
- Hits: 291
No Shortage of Budget Pork amid COVID-19 Outbreak
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
When lawmakers return in January for a new legislative session, they likely will claim they will have far less money to spend next fiscal year because of the coronavirus outbreak.
But state government is far from poor, at least judging by agencies’ budget requests for fiscal 2021-22, which starts July 1 – and the hundreds of millions in state reserves.
- Hits: 416
Page 1 of 6
