By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | The math is easy. With about about $2 billion in new or surplus tax revenues for the state’s coming fiscal year, there’s more than enough money for the General Assembly to do something it should have long done: Make 4-year-old kindergarten available for all of South Carolina’s poor children.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Looking back at the past decade, it’s pretty easy to see what the S.C. General Assembly didn’t do — fix education, fix the tax structure, fix health care and on and on.
But state lawmakers did get some things done in what may become known as the legislature’s Decade of the Nibble. That’s because each area they focused on was more of what a posh restaurant would call an “amuse bouche” than an entree.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | The harsh crescendo of Washington bullheadedness seems to be trickling down into politics across South Carolina.
The impeachment of President Donald Trump may be exacerbating divides in the electorate while also motivating partisans to do more in new ways. Others say the whole thing is a nothingburger.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | The 2020 legislative season will be upon us before we know it. If it is typical, campaign-year bluster will fill rooms as lawmakers clamor for the spotlight to get pet projects passed. Hot-button, controversial issues will suck oxygen out of the Statehouse and waste valuable time.
Let’s pray for an atypical legislative year — one in which officials get real things accomplished. Rather than waste time on meaningless bills, legislators need to get these five things right, once and for all …
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | More than 400 people Sunday celebrated the protection of 300,000 acres of majestic Lowcountry landscapes over the last 30 years on a balmy Sunday straight out of central casting.
The 30th anniversary of protecting the ACE Basin, the confluence of the Ashepoo, Combahee and Edisto rivers stretching from southern Charleston County through Beaufort County, attracted private landowners and the federal government as well as conservation organizations ranging from Ducks Unlimited to the Nature Conservancy.
“More ducks, fewer people” was the translation of a Latin phrase on commemorative glasses given to guests at the ceremony west of Adams Run on Yonge’s Island at historic Willtown Bluff Plantation, first settled in 1714. Now owned by the Lane family of Charleston and Savannah, it is an epicenter for collaborative conservation effort championed for three decades to safeguard the land and marshes of the Lowcountry. Thes areas often are considered the last wild places along the Eastern seaboard.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | OK, boomlets. Stand down. The older folks aren’t all that bad.
Millennials and iGen kids who now gleefully deprecate and mock baby boomers these days need to face the reality that the very lifestyle that keeps them connected, in tune, entertained, online and hip to what’s happening is due to … wait for it … baby boomers.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | The other day after a church meeting, someone commented, “We need a free press now, more than ever.” Let that sink in.
Why would someone say that? Is it because he doesn’t like the bombast of President Trump or she doesn’t like the preening of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi? Is it because they’re worried about the legitimacy of what they read on Facebook, Twitter or the Internet?
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | The first Thanksgiving in South Carolina probably was in French. Or Spanish.
More than 100 years before the English settled in Charleston in 1670, the French built a small wooden fort on what is now Parris Island. Known as Charlesfort in honor of the French king, it was abandoned after a couple of years.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | South Carolina is just one of four states without a law that punishes people who violently lash out against others or property because of hate. Rep. Beth Bernstein, D-Columbia, is working to build a coalition of lawmakers to change the status quo — and soon.
“Tragic events like the Mother Emanuel church shooting [in Charleston] and the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting highlight the need for hate crimes legislation in our state,” she told Statehouse Report. “Those incidents represent some of the most heinous crimes, and they were committed based solely on who the victim is as a person.”
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | State legislators might have a little extra incentive to do something about nameless groups that pour dark money into elections to affect their outcomes: their own political hides.
If elections set for Tuesday in the Charleston area are a hint of the political future, state House and Senate candidates in 2020 should get ready to be hammered by nasty direct mail pieces. The way out? Rein in dark money.
We Can Do Better, South Carolina! (2019) by editor and publisher Andy Brack offers incisive commentaries on the American South, politics, the common good and interesting South Carolina leaders. Available exclusively for Kindle for $7.99. A paperback version will be ready soon. Learn more.
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