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Could Greenville GOP Delegation be Removed from SC State GOP Club?
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- By James Spurck
South Carolina Democrats May Have A Long Sought-after Opportunity
On July 11, 1804, longstanding political rivals and personal enemies, former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton and Vice President Aaron Burr raised their dueling pistols and took aim. Due to political upsets by Hamilton, Burr retaliated by challenging Hamilton to a duel in which Hamilton was killed.
Politics has always been an ugly business. Relationships get soured and emotions boil out of control. The ramifications can be long-lasting.
Unfortunately, South Carolina’s Grand Old Party is currently in the middle of such turmoil.
This current dueling all started with the largest county delegation of the South Carolina Republican Party. Any state-wide candidate knows that to win a state-wide election requires a healthy relationship with the Greenville County Republican Party.
Few S.C. Bridges Fixed With Gas-Tax-Hike Money
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- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
Only three bridge projects have been completed in South Carolina with the nearly $2 billion in revenues collected under the 2017 state gas-tax-hike law, recently released transportation department records show.
And although the S.C. Department of Transportation has identified 465 out of 750 “structurally deficient” bridges statewide to be replaced, other agency records reviewed by The Nerve show that the vast majority of 66 “priority” projects in that category remain unfinished.
In passing the gas-tax-hike law, which raised the state gasoline tax by 12 cents per gallon over six years and increased other vehicle taxes and fees, lawmakers promised that the money would be used to fix the state’s crumbling roads and bridges. The latest 2-cent-per-gallon increase took effect July 1.
Some State Agency Heads Start New Fiscal Year With Big Pay Raises
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- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
A legislatively controlled committee has given five-figure pay hikes to a group of state agency heads, and a new law empowers the panel to recommend raises next fiscal year for certain statewide elected officials.
The Agency Head Salary Commission (AHSC) on Thursday– the start of the new fiscal year – approved the following annual salaries for agency heads, with the amount and percentage of the raises in parentheses, according to commission and Department of Administration records:
- Christy Hall, Department of Transportation secretary: $298,000 ($46,768, 18.6%)
- Marcia Adams, Department of Administration executive director: $284,679 ($60,637, 27%)
- Nanette Edwards, Office of Regulatory Staff executive director: $265,000 ($86,381, 48.3%)
- Bryan Stirling, Department of Corrections director: $250,000 ($50,143, 25%)
- Grant Gillespie, State Fiscal Accountability Authority executive director: $245,000 ($44,438, 22.1%)
In addition, the commission set newly confirmed Commerce secretary Harry Lightsey’s annual salary at $252,000. His predecessor, Bobby Hitt, who retired, was making $199,857 as of April 9, according to an online database of state workers earning at least $50,000 yearly.
Earmark Secrecy Continues as State Budget Goes into Effect
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- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
In vetoing 226 budget earmarks totaling $152.5 million, Gov. Henry McMaster last week wrote that the “bulk of these earmarked appropriations still lack sufficient context, description, explanation of merit, or justification as to how the recipient intends to spend the funds.”
That might be one of the biggest understatements on how lawmakers funnel surplus tax dollars to their pet projects.
Under House and Senate rules, earmarks are funding requests by legislators for specific programs or projects that didn’t originate with a written agency budget request, or weren’t included in the prior fiscal year’s state appropriations.
State Agencies Claim Taxpayers’ Refunds to Collect Debts
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- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
Over the last five years, state agencies, including public colleges and a university hospital system, collected a total of nearly $95 million in past-due payments through deductions from state income-tax refunds, records reviewed by The Nerve show.
A little-known state law, titled the “Setoff Debt Collection Act” (SDCA), allows state and local government agencies, “quasi-governmental” agencies and private colleges to seek deductions from income tax refunds by filing claims with the S.C. Department of Revenue.
The department recently provided The Nerve with collection records from 2016 through last year under the state Freedom of Information Act. This story examines collections by state agencies only.
Lawmakers Approve Massive State Budget Stuffed with Pork Projects
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- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
Lawmakers on Monday sent a strong message in adopting a state budget for the fiscal year that starts next week.
Let the spending party begin – with your tax dollars.
The Legislature overwhelmingly approved a $32.3 billion total budget for fiscal 2022, which includes state, federal and “other” funds, budget records show. Not included in that amount, according to the official “summary control document,” was $176 million in earlier approved spending from the state capital reserve fund, mainly for maintenance, renovation and other building projects at public colleges and universities.
Santee Cooper Board Still Has Expired, Vacant Seats Despite ‘Reform’ Law
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- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
Of the 12 seats on the board governing state-owned utility Santee Cooper, two are vacant while seven members are serving past their expired terms.
A new law that purportedly will reform Santee Cooper – pushed by lawmakers after they couldn’t decide to sell the debt-burdened utility – doesn’t change the selection process for board members, though it allows the utility to offer them state health insurance benefits on top of their salaries.
Lawmakers Bypassing Normal Budget Process to Spend $600M Settlement
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- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
Proceeds from a $600 million settlement with the federal government over plutonium storage in South Carolina weren’t included in any state budget versions crafted by lawmakers for the upcoming fiscal year.
But that doesn’t mean they aren’t planning to spend the massive windfall.
Last month, a joint resolution was quietly introduced in the Senate to spend the settlement funds, though the proposal didn’t contain any specifics on who would receive the money or how much of it would be appropriated. The “shell” resolution was sponsored by longtime Senate Finance Committee chairman Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, and was referred to his budget-writing committee.
Holes Still Exist In DOT’s Pothole Numbers
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- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
The number of potholes that the S.C. Department of Transportation claims it patched statewide jumped by more than 300,000 over the last four fiscal years, according to agency annual reports.
The Nerve has reported that DOT’s annual numbers in recent years were merely estimates. But DOT now says the 678,984 potholes it filled during fiscal 2020 was an actual count, according to records provided by the agency under the state Freedom of Information Act.
House Poised to Spend Millions More on Pork Projects
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- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
The S.C. House this week could pass a revised version of the fiscal 2022 state budget, which includes $1.8 billion in “new” state funding.
But the total $32.1 billion budget version passed last week by the House Ways and Means Committee doesn’t authorize any refunds to state taxpayers.
Budget writers, however, designated millions for pet projects in the fiscal year that starts July 1.
U.S. Rep. Mace Among Those Owing S.C. House Ethics Fines
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- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
Ex-S.C. House member Nancy Mace, who was elected last year to Congress, owes a $5,100 civil fine imposed by the state House Ethics Committee for a campaign reporting violation related to her former position, according to an updated fines list released this week after The Nerve’s inquiry.
The list, updated Tuesday on the Legislature’s website, shows that Mace, a Berkeley County Republican who was elected to the S.C. House in a 2018 special election, was fined on Jan. 21 of this year for “late/not filed campaign disclosure.” The status of the $5,100 fine was listed as “unsatisfied,” or unpaid.
Louisiana Joins Arkansas and Alabama in Establishing a Day of Tears
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- By Christian Newswire
BATON ROUGE, La. -- Senate Concurrent Resolution 38 (SCR 38), designating January 22, 2022 as the Day of Tears in Louisiana, has passed both the Senate and the House, and has been sent to the Secretary of State.
Sponsored by Senator and President Pro Tempore, Beth Mizell, (R-Franklinton), SCR 38 encourages citizens of Louisiana to lower their flags in remembrance of those who have been lost to abortion. Louisiana joins Alabama and Arkansas in adopting the Day of Tears.
SCDOT Says It Will Fix Nearly 1,000 More Miles of Bad Roads. More Empty Promises?
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- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
Motorists likely will feel plenty of bumps this Memorial Day weekend as they drive over South Carolina’s seemingly endless pothole-riddled roads.
Since the state gas-tax-hike law took effect nearly four years ago, The Nerve has repeatedly pointed out the S.C. Department of Transportation’s relatively slow pace of completing paving projects while sitting on massive reserves generated with the extra revenues.
Now, the agency is proposing a “Pavement Improvement Program” for fiscal 2021-22, which calls for an additional 683 repaving or reconstruction projects statewide totaling about 977 miles. Last week, the DOT Commission approved a 21-day public comment period on the proposal.
Feds Giving SC More Covid Money – Without Clear Spending Instructions
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- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
Local governments in South Carolina are expected to collectively receive hundreds of millions more in federal COVID-19 relief funding, though what exactly that money can be spent on is unclear.
The U.S. Department of Treasury last week adopted an “interim final rule” on the American Rescue Plan (ARP) funding. But local government spokespersons told The Nerve this week their municipalities haven’t yet received the funds or specific guidance on how the money can be used, though the law authorizing the funding is more than two months old.
Two Lawmakers Rack up Thousands in Unpaid Ethics Fines
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- By Rick Brundrett - The Nerve
Since 2015, two sitting House members have owed thousands in civil fines after receiving public reprimands for campaign reporting violations, records reviewed by The Nerve show.
Rep. Cezar McKnight, D-Williamsburg, who is an attorney, owes $59,150.88 to the Senate Ethics Committee, committee lawyer J.J. Gentry said in an initial written response in January to The Nerve, citing information from the S.C. Department of Revenue.
Out of a total $60,190 in fines imposed against McKnight, $1,039.12, or less than 2%, had been collected, Gentry said then – though the amount was not paid directly to the Ethics Committee but instead was collected through SCDOR’s debt-collection program, which involves deductions from income tax refunds.
State Individual Income Tax Rates and Brackets for 2021
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- By Katherine Loughead - Tax Foundation
Individual income taxes are a major source of state government revenue, accounting for 38 percent of state tax collections.[1] Their prominence in public policy considerations is further enhanced in that individuals are actively responsible for filing their income taxes, in contrast to the indirect payment of sales and excise taxes.
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