Politicians’ Promises Don’t Reflect Written Incentives Deals
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
S.C. politicians routinely love to make promises about massive corporate investment and multitudes of new jobs in the Palmetto State.
But the secretly crafted written agreements offering taxpayer-backed incentives in exchange for those promised jobs and investment often don’t live up to the official hype.
Last month, The Nerve detailed how for years state commerce and revenue officials failed to adequately track new jobs that benefiting companies were required to create.
- Hits: 144
Fourth of July in SC: Fireworks, Barbecues – and Potholes
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
As residents and tourists hit South Carolina roads this July 4th holiday weekend, they will contend with plenty of potholes and higher state gasoline taxes.
Meanwhile, newly released records show that the S.C. Department of Transportation – the agency tasked with fixing pothole-riddled, state-maintained roads, continues to sit on massive reserves – more than $563 million as of May 31 – generated by the gas-tax-hike law that took effect three years ago.
- Hits: 628
Tourism Advertising Funds, Manufacturer Incentives Sought in Covid’s Wake
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
Spending more tax dollars on tourism advertising and incentives for manufacturers are among proposals to jump-start South Carolina’s economy, which took a severe blow with government-imposed shutdowns following the coronavirus outbreak.
The recommendation for increased tourism advertising is contained in a final report released last week by “accelerateSC,” an advisory committee created by Gov. Henry McMaster in April and made up of public- and private-sector representatives. It’s also among proposals listed in the “GrowSC Agenda,” released this week by a group of chambers of commerce and other business organizations statewide.
- Hits: 342
State Agencies Issue Millions in Emergency Purchase Orders Amid Covid Outbreak
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
The S.C. Department of Transportation initially wanted more than $1 million worth of hand sanitizer.
The state Department of Administration requested 1,500 laptop computers and related equipment totaling nearly $468,000.
- Hits: 413
Ask Your Governor to Reopen Your State
- By Eagle Forum
The last few months have been trying. Governors across the nation locked down their states over concerns of the unknown facts about COVID-19. Now, we have a better understanding of this virus, and cases are declining. Ask your Governor today to put citizens back to work!
- Hits: 377
Closed SC Businesses in Covid’s Wake: Protecting Public Health?
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
Having customers in his Columbia glass art shop posed no public threat, if you ask Tom Lockart of One Eared Cow Glass.
Yet after Gov. Henry McMaster put the S.C. Department of Commerce in charge of deciding what businesses are allowed to stay open or which must close when “clarification” requests are made, Lockart’s store made the official “non-essential” list.
- Hits: 1550
Local Governments’ Emergency Power Grabs
- By South Carolina Policy Council
Local governments all over the state are adopting emergency measures to combat the COVID-19 outbreak – but not all of them are making their emergency declarations and ordinances easily accessible.
State law allows local governments to pass emergency ordinances in one meeting without giving the public any notice or a chance to read them first, and a number of local governments’ emergency actions are either incompletely published, difficult to find – or not published at all, leaving citizens in the dark on what their local officials actually enacted.
- Hits: 773
Has Your County Declared a "State of Emergency"?
- By Dave Schwartz - FAN of South Carolina
Last week, between making sure my kids did their schoolwork and grocery shopping, I saw on the TV that my Mayor had declared a “state of emergency”.
It went in one ear and out the other.
With all the turmoil going on, I didn’t really pay much attention what the Mayor of Mount Pleasant had declared.
I didn’t think it mattered.
When I hear about a local politician declaring a “state of emergency” two things come to mind:
- Hits: 779
How S.C. Lawmakers Increase their Odds of Staying in Power
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
Every 10 years, S.C. lawmakers re-exert their authority to draw legislative and congressional district lines based on updated population counts – a typically convoluted process aimed at protecting incumbents.
While the 2020 U.S. Census is underway, state lawmakers quietly are planning to initially spend as much as $2 million on the “reapportionment” process, or the redrawing of district lines.
How those lines are drawn – largely controlled by legislative leaders – can greatly affect who wins elections, which areas are best represented, and what legislation gets approved.
- Hits: 719
Emergency Alert South Carolina - Convention of States & BBA
- By Janine Hansen, Eagle Forum National Constitutional Issues Chairman
Convention of States & BBA Thurs. Feb. 13
The hearing will be starting at about 12:30 pm
Please contact the members of this South Carolina Special Committee
Please share this alert with like-minded friends and family
H3017 Article V Balanced Budget Amendment https://www.scstatehouse.gov/sess123_2019-2020/bills/3017.htm
H3125 Article V Convention of States https://www.scstatehouse.gov/sess123_2019-2020/bills/3125.htm
HEARING: Thursday, February 13, starts about 12:30pm Room 516 Blatt.
- Hits: 1066
State Law Violated: PURC Fails to Submit Annual Reviews of PSC Members
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
A legislatively controlled committee violated state law in recent years by not giving the General Assembly annual performance reviews of individual S.C. Public Service Commission members, who set utility rates for residents and businesses statewide, a review by The Nerve found.
Timing could be everything.
- Hits: 1259
SCPRT Secretive About Renters at Governor’s Mansion Complex
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
Since Henry McMaster became governor in 2017, the state’s tourism agency has received more than $675,000 from renting the historic Lace House at the Governor’s Mansion complex in downtown Columbia, records show.
But the S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism (SCPRT) ) – whose director, Duane Parrish, is a member of McMaster’s Cabinet – won’t reveal who has rented the public building, contending it would be an “unreasonable invasion of privacy” under the state Freedom of Information Act.
- Hits: 1152
Comprehensive Sex Ed Expanding in Scope ... Is This Coming to SC?
- By Johnnelle Raines
Lately in the news there has been a great deal of controversy over what is being taught in public schools when it comes to Sex Education. There is indeed a disconnect between what Christian Conservative Parents want taught and what Humanist Progressives want taught to their children by the state.
Whose “right” is it to teach a child what they need to know about the birds and the bees? Is it the public schools responsibility to override what a parent wants their child to learn? Things are really getting heated up when it comes to Sex Education. Exactly what is age appropriate learning about sex? Do children in kindergarten need to be learning about sex during their academic day?
- Hits: 1333
Relatively Little Gas-tax-hike Money Spent on Major Road-rebuilding Projects
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
Last week, the S.C. Department of Transportation announced that it had completed rebuilding a nine-mile stretch of Interstate 85 in Spartanburg County.
Yet as of Oct. 31, DOT had completed just 17% of the total estimated cost of other identified “pavements” projects in the county with gas-tax-hike revenues, newly released agency records show. Spartanburg County was among at least 25 counties statewide that had completion rates of less than 25% in that category, The Nerve’s latest review found.
- Hits: 1233
S.C. Legislature Secretive When it Comes to Chamber Spending Plans
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
At least 100 state agencies have filed budget requests for the next fiscal year that begins July 1, online records show.
But the S.C. House and Senate aren’t among them – despite a longstanding state law requiring all agencies to annually file budget requests with the governor by Nov 1. Both the 124-member House and 46-member Senate typically have ignored that law, as The Nerve previously has reported.
- Hits: 1437
Millions from Civil Settlements Paid to S.C. AG’s Office, Outside Law Firms
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
Over the past four fiscal years, the state Attorney General’s Office settled 33 civil cases against various companies for a total of nearly $210 million, though agency records show that the proceeds typically didn’t go directly to affected South Carolina consumers.
Instead, most of the money was used by lawmakers to help cover an annual list of one-time expenses by state agencies, while another $40 million collectively went to the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) and outside law firms hired in the cases, a review by The Nerve’s found.
- Hits: 1484
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