RSS FeedsI WAS TRYING to figure out what made Gov. Mark Sanford think that the Legislature would do anything other than ratify the Budget and Control Board’s across-the-board budget cuts if it spent the money to come back to town, given its demonstrated refusal to make the kind of targeted cuts he wanted.- 12:17 AM
THE MONEY men in Columbia were playing “Don’t let the facts get in the way of a good political argument” last week, against the backdrop of the Budget and Control Board slashing state agency budgets, only to be told the next day that they really didn’t need to.- 12:13 AM
I WORRIED that perhaps I was being a bit alarmist when I warned that rank-and-file legislators might find themselves suckered by legislative leaders the next time they started tacking unrelated amendments onto bills, in violation of the state constitution.- 12:16 AM
THE GOVERNOR’S chief critic blames him for shameful unemployment rates, calls his economic development efforts unfocused and stagnant and pledges to rebuild the economy around knowledge-based businesses. The governor dismisses the criticism, noting that the state has broken previous job-growth records during his administration.- 1:47 AM
AT LEAST once a week — usually more often — someone complains to me about the Legislature’s inability to pass a cigarette tax or outlaw payday lending or eliminate the pork or ... you name it. It’s so easy, they invariably say. Anyone could do it — except those doofuses at Assembly and Main.- 12:17 AM
I PROMISE you I’m more tired of writing about Howie Rich’s campaign to buy our Legislature than you are of reading about it. But I figure if somebody’s willing to put down more than half a million bucks in a single round of primary elections, just to make sure a Legislature in a state he has no ties to spends other people’s tax dollars the way he sees fit, we owe him some ink.- 12:16 AM
WHENEVER I write about all the money Manhattan millionaire Howie Rich is investing to remake our General Assembly in his image, I get two main complaints:- 12:16 AM
WE SAID Howie Rich was an outsider with no interest in our state, pumping in massive amounts of money to try to control our Legislature; his supporters bristled. We said he was trying to use South Carolina as a launching pad to spread his narrow ideological view across the country; they balked. We said he had a single-minded fixation on what he calls “school choice” they objected.- 12:14 AM
“I DIDN’T leave the Democratic Party,” David Beasley always used to say. “The Democratic Party left me.”- 1:47 AM
WHEN PARENTS tell me they shouldn’t have to pay taxes to educate children they’re already paying tuition to send to private school, I ask if they think I deserve a pass as well. I don’t have children, but I pay school taxes. I pay them for the same reason private-school parents do: School taxes pay to educate the children of South Carolina, not the children of the individual taxpayer. It’s much the same as the taxes we pay for fire service, which we hope we...- 11:53 AM
H.4754 reads almost like parody. It allows a county council to take over a special purpose district. But only a special purpose district created without a public referendum. And only a recreation special purpose district. That covers an entire county. And doesn’t provide aging services.- 8:14 AM
THE GOOD news is that the Legislature has finally eliminated the “mistake of age” defense for men who have sex with underage girls — a blame-the-victim provision that lawmakers swear they had no idea they passed, but that it took them two full years to repeal.- 12:14 AM
YOU’VE dropped by your office on the weekend to go over some paperwork, and you accidentally lock yourself inside a storage room. The door can only be unlocked from the outside, and the only person who has a key is your assistant. You call your wife and tell her to find your assistant and have him come rescue you.- 1:47 AM
LAST WEEK, the state Supreme Court once again struck a unanimous blow against South Carolina’s special brand of legislative logrolling, and all the critics of bobtailing could do was complain that the ruling was too tepid.- 1:45 AM
THE GOVERNOR is usually making a judgment call when he accuses legislators of squandering tax dollars. But in the case of S.1143, which Gov. Mark Sanford vetoed two weeks ago, that charge has nothing to do with priorities. This is a lawsuit waiting to happen and a lawsuit the state is sure to lose, at considerable expense to taxpayers.- 12:18 AM
CANDIDATE endorsements are never easy if you like gray. With legislation, you can embrace the thrust of a bill but suggest changes.- 12:17 AM
WE’VE BEEN reading a lot about the long and distinguished careers of two Senate veterans who are retiring this year, and rightly so. But I’d like to take a few moments to recognize a quieter senator who also is stepping down this year, albeit after a relatively short 16 years.- 12:15 AM
AN ARTICLE published a few days before the Legislature adjourned for the year, projecting how things would turn out, listed three items under “what didn’t pass” this year: cigarette tax increase, payday lending restrictions and abolishing parole.- 12:13 AM
BY THE time primary day comes around, I always feel like I’ve just run two marathons — simultaneously. The first is the action-packed final few weeks of the legislative session, when all the important efforts of the session are either coming together or falling apart, when if you blink you miss that major new initiative that someone just slipped into an unrelated bill that’s only a step away from the governor’s desk.- 12:14 AM
CHAD WALDORF loves to remind me, particularly after I write disparagingly about all the little groups that have sprouted up to support parts of Gov. Mark Sanford’s agenda, that his S.C. Club for Growth frequently highlights my columns, and that it’s one of the few organizations pushing the agenda most near and dear to my heart — government restructuring.- 12:13 AM
