Charleston Currents – Common Good

FOCUS: Interstate 526 completion isn’t actionable plan, but smoky scheme

By Fred Palm, contributing columnist | Charleston County’s new plan to finish I-526 remains secret but includes recent half-cent sales tax money. Seemingly, we should not care about nor want to know the details of this plan that has yet to find a financing source in the county budget. Smoky at best.

There is just some number – let’s call it “$X” — developed years ago given as the “estimated” cost. This number, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, has been repeated enough times that it seems to be true. $X has never been worked up by a reputable engineering firm. $X has not been adjusted for years of inflation. $X has never been bid out thus lacks the market’s reaction. $X is pushed by the current crop of elected leaders for inexplicable reasons with ill-defined benefits, and to whom.

by Fred Palm · 04/09/2018 · 1 comment · Common Good, Views

MY TURN, Palm: Let’s focus on the common good

By Fred Palm, contributing columnist | The recent eighth government shutdown since 1980 provides an opportunity to consider the “common good” in America and why we need to embrace it.

After our Revolutionary War the winners set about to invent a way to govern a nation that was not available. The founders gathered in Philadelphia to specify a model of governance to provide the people with the opportunity for “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” that was expressed in Declaration of Independence in the prior decade.

The common good is central in the construction of our constitutional institutions. The executive, legislative and judicial powers expressed in the Constitution of the United States are divided at the federal level and similarly divided among the three elements in the states in a federalism structure. For good measure, the “bill of rights” amendments are carved out to specify what was out of reach of governance and belonged to the people, as opposed to those holding authority.

by Charleston Currents · 02/19/2018 · 1 comment · Common Good, Views

September flooding in Sea Pines on Hilton Head Island. (Photo by SCDOT)

COMMON GOOD: Flood risk assessment to force major change in local, state borrowing

By Fred Palm, special to Charleston Currents | A major transition just began in public finance now that two bond rating agencies, Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s, the say they will add the risk of flooding to flood risk to financial risk when they evaluate the total risk. The addition is expected to have a major impact on associated bond interest rates that state and local governments will pay to borrow up front for their major building programs.

Why the change? The rating agencies are concerned lenders can lose all their investments should flooding impacts become extreme. To date, only financial risk was measured. This new metric can be expected to impact the state and local public finance decisions of lenders and borrowers.

When capital investment decision-makers start assessing longer-term risk, the risk inherent in the overall flood adaption plans themselves becomes a consideration of how effective a flood plan will be in addressing the potential flooding conditions — not just the risk of failing to make the coupon payment associated with a project or general obligation bond.

by Charleston Currents · 12/18/2017 · Comments are Disabled · Common Good