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Arkansas Passes First State Ban on Abortion Recognizing it as a Crime Against Humanity and Accepting Every Unwanted Child
- Details
- By Christian Newswire
SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- Allan E. Parker, President of The Justice Foundation, who represents thousands of women hurt by abortion states, "SB 6 is an excellent vehicle for improving the health and safety of women in Arkansas and moving towards a more just and humane society. Since Arkansas already has a Safe Haven law, as does every other state in the nation, no woman in Arkansas will have to take care of an unwanted child when the bill becomes effective. Senator Rapert and Representative Mary Bentley's SB 6 is an excellent vehicle for challenging the Supreme Court's current view on Roe v. Wade, Doe v. Bolton, and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. The freedom of Roe can be preserved now for women without its human cost – killing children and injuring women.
House Targets Budget Law for Repeal; Other Old Laws Remain Untouched
- Details
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
In South Carolina, it’s still illegal to challenge someone to a duel with a sword, pistol or other deadly weapon.
Other laws on the books that date to the last century or earlier ban such things as, for example:
- Robbing a train after stopping it;
- Swindling in card or dice games;
- Committing adultery or fornication; and
- Operating dance halls on Sundays
Although a number of old laws are no longer observed or enforced, lawmakers have done relatively little in recent years to revise or repeal them. But they’re moving quickly now to eliminate a longstanding law that they routinely have ignored but which supporters say would provide greater transparency in the state budget process.
Gas-tax-hike Surplus Expands by $250M in One Year While Road Projects Lag
- Details
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
In just one year, the surplus from state gas-tax-hike revenues grew by more than a quarter of a billion dollars, or 50%, to $752 million as of Jan. 31, records show.
The Nerve repeatedly has pointed out the growing reserve that the S.C. Department of Transportation has been sitting on since the gas-tax-hike law took effect on July 1, 2017. Now, the agency contends that the surplus is committed to “pending vendor payments.”
Legislators Quietly Moving to Repeal Longtime Budget Law They Ignore
- Details
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
The S.C. Legislature these days is proving that the cover-up is as bad as the crime.
Not only have legislators routinely ignored a longstanding state law requiring public hearings on the entire state budget as initially proposed by the governor, they now are moving to get rid of the law itself – without debate.
A House Ways and Means subcommittee this week quickly approved, without discussion, a bill that would repeal a law requiring the House and Senate budget-writing committees (House Ways and Means, Senate Finance committees) to hold joint public hearings on the governor’s proposed state spending plan.
Little-known S.C. Public Railroad Pays its Executives Well
- Details
- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
It’s a railroad that most South Carolinians probably never have heard of.
The Charleston-based “Palmetto Railways” is classified as a “short line railroad,” which typically runs shorter distances and connects shippers to larger freight railroads.
Officially, Palmetto Railways, which was established in 1969, is a division of the S.C. Department of Commerce, though it has a separate website; and recent state budgets mention it only once in an obscure proviso under Commerce’s section.
Golden Parachute for State Attorney General?
- Details
- 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.
Gas Tax Credit Still Unpopular, State Concedes
- Details
- 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).
Commerce Approves Hundreds of Large-Crowd Events Amid Covid Outbreak
- Details
- 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.
Restoring Election Integrity Begins With State Legislatures
- Details
- 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.
State Court System Won’t Reveal Key Details on Judicial Discipline
- Details
- 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.
A First With The Gas-Tax-Hike Law – And It’s Little To Celebrate
- Details
- 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.
Top Lawmakers’ Campaign Spending Didn’t Stop with Re-election
- Details
- 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.
Health Agency Slowly Spending Covid Money
- Details
- 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.
Plenty of Pork in Governor’s Proposed State Spending Plan
- Details
- 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:
Lawmakers Want to Grow Size of State’s Top Court – and Their Control Over Judges
- Details
- 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.
Priorities Ignored in Awarding Covid Grants to Some SC Nonprofits?
- Details
- 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:
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