Charleston Currents

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MORRIS: Rules have changed on using 529 plans to fund education

By Kyra Morris, contributing editor | No longer limited to college funding, 529 plans can now be applied for private elementary and secondary education. While this addition sounds like a good idea, it does introduce some new complexities. This new feature using 529 plans to fund secondary and elementary education requires a fresh lens to be fully appreciated. We’ll take a look at the new developments of this plan, the state’s position and what this could mean for your family.

by Kyra Morris · 05/21/2018 · 1 comment · Money, My Turn, Views

BRACK: How we pick lieutenant governors is going off the rails

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | The new way South Carolina picks its lieutenant governor has gone off the rails.

For years, the governor and lieutenant governor campaigned for office separately, which occasionally led to the odd situation of different parties holding the offices, instead of the lieutenant governor being a junior governor and part of the governor’s team.

by Andy Brack · 05/14/2018 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views

FOCUS, Palm: Moving flood control beyond more trees

By Fred Palm, contributing editor | The Post and Courier editorial team (April 27, 2018) advocated that the City of Charleston plant trees to start to address flooding. That is a start. Here is what got left out.

We know that the outer lands, when properly employed to protect ourselves, buffer, reduce inundation and wave height that flood the inner uplands. We also know the flooding follows the rivers and floodplains going inland to Goose Creek and Mount Pleasant to the Francis Marion National Forest and other parts of the lowlands. This is a threat going well beyond the city of Charleston and addressed well beyond planting trees, though it helps. It could also be a way to have the Dutch dialogue that the P&C editorial writers endorsed recently.

Flooding is a coastal threat. Comprehensive plan funding is needed by all the S.C. state coastal counties and cities; and where the lion’s share of state revenue is drawn. We urgently need the state to act by funding a statewide plan including the coastal waters’ edges and upland rivers.

by Fred Palm · 05/07/2018 · Comments are Disabled · Common Good, Focus, Views

BRACK: Engaging in community discussions may help us move forward

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Most people don’t have the time or inclination to attend lots of public meetings where elected officials make decisions that impact their lives. Most people have got better things to do, including not being bored (much of the time) out of their skulls in meeting rooms.

But every community has faces familiar to elected officials. These are the squeaky wheels, the people who show up and make their cases, time after time. And more often than you’d think, they get the grease in the public policy process because they advocate for their positions. But just because these folks are squeaking doesn’t mean that what they want is what most people want.

by Andy Brack · 05/07/2018 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views

BRACK: Seize the rudder to thwart ambivalence, apathy, neglect

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | With the annual legislative session roaring to a close, there are a multitude of unresolved issues, as usual.

Most prominent is the state’s nuclear mess, a $9 billion fiasco stemming from a nuclear plant project that failed last year without generating a watt of power. Currently, the state House and Senate are mired in working out differences in how to deal with this issue that has consumed hours and hours of legislative time.

by Andy Brack · 04/30/2018 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views

BRACK: Will the Year of the Woman impact S.C. governor’s race?

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Strap in. The silly season is creeping up on us.

South Carolina’s primary elections are less than two months away. You’re about to get inundated with campaign literature, commercials, emails and lots of junk, particularly from gubernatorial candidates.

Up until now, the 2018 race for governor has been anything but titillating. In fact, it’s been pretty tame and dull. But that’s expected, in one sense because early campaign time is devoted mostly to raising enough money so candidates can stir up the party faithful later. And that “later” is now beginning.

by Andy Brack · 04/23/2018 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views

BRACK: If you want prosperity, you’ve got to invest to build talent

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | If you’re a little overweight, you know – in your heart of hearts – what you really need to do: Eat less, get rid of junk food and exercise more.

For states like South Carolina that are underweight in terms of education, economic disparity, health outcomes and poverty, we know – in our heart of hearts – what we really need to do: Invest more in our future, throw off the shackles that still hold us back and increase opportunities for our people.

by Andy Brack · 04/16/2018 · 3 comments · Andy Brack, Views

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

BRACK: S.C. friendship touted in new book isn’t all that unlikely

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | In 1975, the rock group War released a popular song titled “Why can’t we be friends.” It wasn’t complicated. The title was repeated a lot between various couplets, including this one: “The color of your skin don’t matter to me; As long as we can live in harmony.”

Forty-three years later, two South Carolina Republican members of Congress released a book on friendship that for all intents and purposes reiterates a similar theme.

by Andy Brack · 04/09/2018 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views

FANNING: Video on how to stop wasting time

By Ben Fanning, contributing columnist | Did you know that you waste time when you switch between activities?

You’re wasting time because every time you switch to a new task, it leaves “attention residue” that negatively impacts your efficiency.

Here it is from attention rescue expert Sophie Leroy: “[P]eople need to stop thinking about one task in order to fully transition their attention and perform well on another. Yet, results indicate it is difficult for people to transition their attention away from an unfinished task and their subsequent task performance suffers.”

by Ben Fanning · 04/09/2018 · Comments are Disabled · Careers, Views