TALLY SHEET: From the state budget to guns, vouchers and partisanship
Staff reports | The House Ways and Means committee this week formally introduced its annual budget bill and related bills in preparation for next week’s floor debate on how the state will spend about...
View ArticleBRIEFS: More women elected to county positions than legislature
Staff reports | With South Carolina ranking among the bottom nationally in the number of women elected to the General Assembly, it’s not surprising males occupy more than five out of every six...
View ArticleTALLY SHEET: Few bills introduced this week
Staff reports | The pickings were slim for new bills introduced in the House and Senate other than the usual stream of congratulatory resolutions. Among the handful of substantive bills: College...
View ArticleBRIEFS: Budget process starts second phase; training in Charleston
Staff reports | The Senate Finance Committee will start its budget process next week with various meetings in which senators will take up components of the just-passed $8 billion House budget and mold...
View ArticleTALLY SHEET: From abortion politics to pyramid schemes
Staff reports | State lawmakers introduced an array of bills dealing with everything from abortion and pyramid schemes to the state’s Freedom of Information Act and how it budgets. Senators introduced...
View ArticleBRIEF: Shock and awe
Staff reports | Members of the state legislature are still in shock over allegations that state Sen. John Courson (R-Columbia) has been indicted on ethics charges.
View ArticleTALLY SHEET: Crossover date comes early this year
Staff reports | With the General Assembly going out of general session a month earlier this year, the annual “crossover” deadline this year will be April 10. After that date, original bills from one...
View ArticleBRIEFS: Gauging S.C.’s health; Statue of Hollings to be unveiled
Study shows urban areas in S.C. healthier than rural Staff reports | The state’s healthiest place in terms of health outcomes and factors is Beaufort County, according to newly-published data at...
View ArticleTALLY SHEET: From body cameras to political party registration
Staff reports | When state lawmakers return to Columbia after Easter – they’re taking a furlough week next week – they’ll likely be introducing fewer bills as an important procedural date comes April...
View ArticleBRIEFS: Senate passes budget; Pension reform heads to governor
Staff reports | The state Senate relatively quickly passed a relatively non-controversial $8 billion state budget this week that added about $25 million to public K-12 education than provide in an...
View ArticleBRIEFS: Solar bill apparently stuck in House committee
Staff reports | It’s spring. Plants are blooming. Pollen is stirring. And sun – there’s lots of sunshine after a long winter. Except, perhaps, in the deep recesses of the House Ways and Means Committee...
View ArticleTALLY SHEET: When legislating is like making mayonnaise
Staff reports | The old saying goes that it's not a pretty sight watching either laws or sausages being made. This week, though, a little bit of mayonnaise must have been added to the mixture. State...
View ArticleBRIEF: Roads bill not finished in Senate … still
Staff reports | You know the old political cliche, “kicking the can down the road?” Well, that is what the state legislature has been doing for years with South Carolina’s poor roads system. And if...
View ArticleNEWS: Ervin’s song for S.C.: “We got the pothole blues”
EDITOR'S NOTE, 4/28: This story was posted earlier in the week before Wednesday's vote by the state Senate to approve a road-funding bill. You might still enjoy! Staff reports | Former S.C....
View ArticleBRIEFS: Party leadership; shorter session’s impact
Both major parties in the state will have new leaders for the 2018 elections. The Democrats elected Trav Robertson to be chair. Republicans will elect their new chair on May 13. Also, there's an early...
View ArticleBRIEFS: General Assembly to return; Unemployment drops
Staff reports | The S.C. House and Senate are scheduled to return to Columbia Tuesday to finalize a budget compromise. But they’ve got a problem: House and Senate negotiators are at an impasse over the...
View ArticleBRIEF: On state budget, breathe Chicken Little, breathe
Staff reports | There seems to be an alarmist tone in the coverage in traditional media about the state’s $8 billion annual budget on how use state tax dollars. It goes like this: The House and Senate...
View ArticleBRIEFS: Agreement on budget; Trump’s testy tweet; Pension dodge
Staff reports | House and Senate conferees finished negotiations on a compromise $8 billion budget for state taxes just an hour before June 1 arrived. Highlights are in public education, pension reform...
View ArticleBRIEFS: S.C. ranks 7th in beer taxes; Whipper to leave House
Staff reports | Here’s some fodder for conversation around the bar: For every gallon beer that South Carolinians drink (that’s about 11 beers – way more than you should have in one sitting in a bar),...
View ArticleBRIEFS: Happy Fourth; Swaimming with the current
If you’re going to be on the coast on Tuesday, look skyward for the annual Salute from the Fourth. Hundreds of thousands of people will witness an air parade of F-16s and other military aircraft as...
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