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Lawmakers Trying to Shift Focus Away from Gas-tax-hike Woes?
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
As a special legislative panel considers a yet-to-be-revealed road funding proposal, the state Department of Transportation continues to plod along in fixing South Carolina’s bad roads and bridges while sitting on a massive reserve created with the 2017 gas-tax-hike law.
Recently released DOT records show that through September, a special fund created with the law had a cash balance of $895.1 million, which represented more than 42% of the $2.1 billion in revenues collected since the law took effect on July 1, 2017.
- Hits: 1885
Taxpayer Tab Growing for ‘Boeing’ AG Project
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
Hugh Weathers, South Carolina’s agriculture commissioner, dubbed the project as the “Boeing of agriculture.”
In touting the project in September 2020, Gov. Henry McMaster called it a “tremendous win for the local community and our state as a whole.”
Sonny Perdue, then-President Donald Trump’s agriculture secretary, cited the project as a potential national model.
But more than a year after the public announcement, there’s relatively little to show for the “Agriculture Technology Campus” – a proposed $314 million, produce greenhouse production, packaging and distribution complex in rural Hampton County, which is supposed to bring 1,547 jobs by 2025.
- Hits: 1643
Life Legal Lawyers in Court Challenging New California Law Criminalizing Free Speech
- By Life Legal Defense Foundation
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Life Legal attorneys appeared remotely in federal court in San Jose on Wednesday to argue that a new California law severely restricting speech on public sidewalks is unconstitutional.
The law, SB 742 prohibits, among other things, "harassing," which is redefined as "knowingly approaching, without consent, within 30 feet of another person or occupied vehicle for the purpose of passing a leaflet or handbill to, displaying a sign to, or engaging in oral protest, education, or counseling with, that other person in a public way or on a sidewalk area."
SB 742 was enacted ostensibly to ensure that the public has access to COVID-19 vaccines without interference from protesters. However, legislators amended the law before it was passed to remove references to COVID vaccine sites, instead defining a "vaccination site" as a location offering any type of vaccine services, which includes Planned Parenthood and other abortion facilities that dispense Gardasil and other STD vaccines.
- Hits: 2144
Number of SC Taxpayers Claiming Gas Tax Credit Continues to Drop
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
Once again, the state’s chief revenue forecasters have grossly overestimated the popularity of an income tax credit that legislators created with the 2017 gas-tax-hike law.
In a Sept. 21 letter to Hartley Powell, director of the state Department of Revenue (DOR), Frank Rainwater, the S.C. Revenue and Fiscal Affairs Office (RFA) director, estimated that 68,350 taxpayers will have claimed a total of $4,273,721 in credits for tax year 2020, or an average credit of $62.52 per taxpayer. The actual total amount claimed for last year as of September this year was virtually the same as the estimate, DOR records show.
But the RFA initially predicted last year that for tax year 2020, 322,088 taxpayers – 253,738 more than its latest estimate – would claim a total of about $25.2 million in credits – nearly $21 million more than its latest forecast – or an average credit of $78.
- Hits: 1582
Foundation Sues Virginia AG Mark Herring, Challenges New Virginia Statute
- By Christian Newswire
RICHMOND, Va. -- The Parental Rights Foundation, on behalf of a Virginia family, today sued Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring, challenging a new Virginia statute that says parents may not consider religion when hiring a babysitter.
Jane and Scott adopted their daughter, M.W., in 2015. Because M.W. has medical conditions, the couple has hired babysitters to help with her care for several hours each week, helping her get ready for school, driving her to and from school, and supervising her after school.
It is important to this family that the babysitters they hire share and support their beliefs as Christians. "We are Christians and are looking for a likeminded caregiver," they said regularly in advertisements for the position.
- Hits: 1736
Top Court Rarely Disciplines Judges Despite Numerous Complaints
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
Prio week, the S.C. Supreme Court suspended Oconee County probate judge Kenneth Johns for 18 months after he formally admitted – for the second time in five years – violating ethics rules for judges.
It’s not often that the state’s top court, headed by Chief Justice Donald Beatty, publicly disciplines a judge, though the court system’s recent annual disciplinary reports show that more than 200 complaints on average are filed annually against judges statewide.
According to the latest report for fiscal 2020-21, which ended June 30, out of 213 complaints received during the year and 36 complaints that were pending when the fiscal year started, just 15, or 6%, were not dismissed.
- Hits: 1550
More secrecy on tap in upcoming PSC review?
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
A powerful, legislatively controlled committee is scheduled Thursday to conduct annual reviews of the seven Public Service Commission members, though if recent history is a guide, the public won’t see any final written evaluations.
That’s because they haven’t been done in the past several years, despite being required by state law.
The written evaluations by the State Regulation of Public Utilities Review Committee (PURC) are important because state law requires that they be included in a PSC member’s record for “consideration if the member seeks reelection” by the full Legislature. The terms of three PSC members expire next year, according to the Secretary of State’s Office.
- Hits: 1590
Christian Group Defeats City of Baltimore in First Amendment Ruling
- By Christian Newswire
BALTIMORE -- Church Militant / St. Michael's Media, a Detroit-based Catholic news organization, has won its first amendment case against the city of Baltimore, Maryland.
Tuesday night, Judge Ellen Hollander handed down a legal victory by granting a preliminary injunction against city officials, who had interfered to quash the group's prayer rally, scheduled for Nov. 16 at the MECU Pavilion.
"Plaintiff has demonstrated a substantial likelihood that it will prevail on the merits of its free speech (Count I) and assembly (Count IV) claims under the First and Fourteenth Amendments," wrote the judge in her order. "[T]he balance of the equities favors plaintiff; and an injunction is in the public interest."
- Hits: 1827
SC Judges Ordering Jail Time in Some Civil Cases
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
In a rare move last month, attorneys asked a judge to order the “civil” arrest of prominent Hampton County lawyer Alex Murdaugh to compel him to pay their clients – the sons of a Murdaugh family housekeeper who died in 2018 after a reported fall in his home – from a multimillion-dollar settlement stemming from the death.
State law generally bans arrests in civil actions. But under an obscure law – the origins of which date to the 1800s – cited in the Murdaugh case, an arrest can be made in a civil case for “money received or property embezzled or fraudulently misapplied” by certain public or private officials, including attorneys.
- Hits: 2443
Public Cost of Training Boeing Workers Far Higher Than Projections
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
When S.C. lawmakers in 2009 first approved massive taxpayer-backed funding for aerospace giant Boeing to build an assembly plant in North Charleston, the state estimated it would spend nearly $34 million over 15 years for worker training.
But over the past 10 fiscal years, the state has spent $58.3 million – an approximately 70% hike over original projections – to train Boeing workers through the S.C. Technical College System’s “readySC” program, according to information provided this week by the college system to The Nerve.
The average per-worker training cost to the state also jumped significantly, from about $8,950 as initially estimated to approximately $12,100 – a 35% increase.
- Hits: 2320
DOT’s Road-Repair Schedules Full of Potholes
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
Major repaving or road reconstruction projects in South Carolina could take on average at least a year and possibly more than two years to complete, The Nerve found in a review of state Department of Transportation records.
But it’s unclear exactly how long it takes to finish road projects funded with gas-tax-hike revenues, given that DOT’s publicly available records are incomplete.
Meanwhile, DOT continues to sit on hundreds of millions of dollars generated under the gas-tax-hike law that took effect July 1, 2017. As of Aug. 31, the cash balance in a special fund created with the law was $869.7 million, or 42.4% of the $2.05 billion in revenues collected since 2017, according to DOT and state comptroller general records.
- Hits: 1685
California's New Abortion Protest Law - What Does It Do?
- By Life Legal Defense Foundation
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law that creates new crimes for intentionally electronically recording clients and/or staff within 100 feet of the entrance of an abortion clinic with the specific intent of intimidating them from going into the clinic.
This new law, which is an expansion of California's "Freedom of Access to Clinic and Church Entrances" (FACE) Act, has many pro-lifers concerned that they will no longer be allowed to record activities outside abortion mills. We have received numerous inquiries that contain inaccurate information about the law.
- Hits: 1772
Legislative Delegations Control State Grants Totaling Millions for Local Rec Projects
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
Since 2017, powerful county legislative delegations have approved a total of more than $8 million in state grants for hundreds of local recreation projects in South Carolina, records show.
And as of mid-July, the delegations, made up of state House and Senate members representing a county, collectively had $5 million more available for future grant projects.
State law requires that each grant application be approved by a majority of the delegation representing the local government agency or special purpose district applying for the money. The S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism (PRT) must annually notify delegations of the available revenue in their respective counties’ Parks and Recreation Development (PARD) Fund, and provide a list of eligible government entities in their counties, as determined by PRT.
- Hits: 1571
Legislative Infighting: Inside a Dysfunctional Delegation
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
In South Carolina, county legislative delegations – made up of state House and Senate members representing a county – have considerable power on their home turfs.
As The Nerve has pointed out, delegations make appointments to various local boards and committees, including school boards in some counties and most county transportation committees, which decide which local road projects to fund with part of the state gasoline tax.
Senate delegations – sometimes just one senator – control the selection process of county magistrates, while county delegations exert nomination powers over master-in-equity judges, as The Nerve has reported.
- Hits: 1723
SC Roads Get ‘D’ Grade as Major Repair Projects Remain Unfinished
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
South Carolina will need almost $43 billion more by 2040 to fix its bad roads and handle increased traffic with projected growth, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers, which gave the state’s roads a “D” grade in its annual infrastructure report card.
Meanwhile, the S.C. Department of Transportation continues to poke along in completing repaving and road reconstruction projects with $2 billion in revenues collected under the 2017 gas-tax-hike law – while sitting on a surplus that has surpassed $900 million, newly released agency records show.
The $903.5 million cash balance in a special fund created with the 2017 law was $226.3 million more than the total value of completed “pavements” projects statewide as of July 31, The Nerve found in a review of DOT records.
- Hits: 1909
Texas Ensures All People, No Matter the Size, Deserve a Shot at Life
- By Eagle Forum
Pro-life allies across the country cheered as Texas signed into law a measure that protects the rights of the preborn. The Heartbeat Act, SB 8, took effect on September 1, 2021. It requires doctors to first search for a fetal heartbeat before performing an abortion. If a heartbeat is found, an abortion cannot be performed unless it is a medical emergency. In most cases, a fetal heartbeat is detected as early as 6 weeks gestational age.
The legislation allows any person the ability to sue an abortionist who violates the law, or anyone who aids or abets in an abortion. It’s important to note that these civil-liability provisions do not apply to the mother who desires or is able to maintain an unlawful abortion.
- Hits: 1871
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