Post Tagged with: "tax reform"

BRACK: Get these five things right in 2020

BRACK: Get these five things right in 2020

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 · 12/16/2019 · 1 comment · Andy Brack, Views
A tram at a station in Linz, Austria.

12/16, full issue: On smarter traffic; 5 things to get right; Photo essay

IN THIS ISSUE:
TODAY’S FOCUS, Palm: Let’s be smarter about dealing with traffic woes
COMMENTARY, Brack:  Get these 5 things right in 2020
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: South Carolina Ports Authority
PHOTO ESSAY:  Holiday cruise finds Europe brimming with holiday cheer
FEEDBACK:  Got something to say? Send us a letter.
MYSTERY PHOTO:  Warm, autumn light
S.C. ENCYCLOPEDIA:  White lightning
CALENDAR:  Free parking available in downtown Charleston garages

by · 12/16/2019 · Comments are Disabled · Full issue
BRACK: Don’t play verbal shell games with tax reform

BRACK: Don’t play verbal shell games with tax reform

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher  | Two people can look at a painting or watch the same football game and see two completely different things.

One person, for example, might see little more than an abstracted bull, horse and people in Picasso’s Guernica.  Another might be moved to tears over human suffering.

by · 01/07/2019 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views
1/7, full issue: Neighborhood LRT benefits; Tax shell game; Palmetto Poem

1/7, full issue: Neighborhood LRT benefits; Tax shell game; Palmetto Poem

IN THIS ISSUE  | Jan. 7, 2019

FOCUS: Neighborhoods should benefit from Lowcountry Rapid Transit
COMMENTARY, Brack: Don’t play verbal shell games with tax reform
IN THE SPOTLIGHT:  SCIWAY
PALMETTO POEM, Wentworth: One river, one boat
GOOD NEWS:  On cloud study, new TUW CEO, more
FEEDBACK: Goodwill president thanks community
MYSTERY PHOTO:  Looks like something under construction
S.C. ENCYCLOPEDIA: Coker College
CALENDAR: Charleston Jazz Festival set to start Jan. 24

by · 01/07/2019 · Comments are Disabled · Full issue
BRACK: No halfway needed on tax reform

BRACK: No halfway needed on tax reform

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher  |  The newly-found political buzzphrase among the South Carolina legislative class is “tax reform.”

Suddenly, after years of hemming and hawing about doing something about the hodge-podge of laws that make up the state’s tax code, there’s a little juice to do something real to stabilize the tax structure and, we hope, make it a little bit fairer up and down the line.

by · 12/10/2018 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views
Click to enlarge the image.

12/10: Bus rapid transit; Tax reform: Remembering #41

IN THIS ISSUE   |  Dec. 10, 2018 

FOCUS, Morris: Lowcountry Rapid Transit project makes whole lot of sense
COMMENTARY, Brack: No halfway needed on tax reform
IN THE SPOTLIGHT:  Charleston Gaillard Center
MY TURN, Felkel: Bush had a life well-lived
GOOD NEWS:  Rotary holiday party raises thousands for charity
FEEDBACK: Do you have any opinions? Send them to us
MYSTERY PHOTO:  Clues in photo might give away where it is
S.C. ENCYCLOPEDIA:  Blacksmith Philip Simmons
CALENDAR: From a book launch to more holiday events

by · 12/10/2018 · 1 comment · Full issue
BRACK: House lawmakers need to be bolder on tax reform

BRACK: House lawmakers need to be bolder on tax reform

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | The ghosts of tax reform are rising and slithering through the halls of the Statehouse as lawmakers have been seeking to change how sales, services and income are taxed.

Unfortunately, the backsliding already has begun. Two weeks ago, members of a special House tax policy committee announced with great fanfare that they were taking the bold steps of putting a lot of reform on the table, including a move to get rid of costly special sales tax exemptions that suck billions of dollars from state coffers.

But by late last week, the boldness was gone, a victim of institutional timidity. It’s not surprising because if the past is any reflection of the future, anything changing the tax status quo will be a long, tough slog. Two efforts since 2010 have failed. And even if reform does come, it’s could be two or three years off as proponents will have to spend months to flesh out details and educate recalcitrant lawmakers on what reforms mean.

by · 03/05/2018 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views
South Carolina, the Squeaky Wheel State

Brack: S.C. is Squeaky Wheel State

If you haven’t yet learned, South Carolina’s culture places more emphasis in reacting to problems instead of planning to deal with issues before they become problems. That’s just the way we’ve rolled. We should be called the Squeaky Wheel State.

by · 02/02/2015 · 1 comment · Andy Brack, Views
Gov. Nikki Haley gives the 2015 State of the State address, 2015.

Brack: Haley’s anti-union bullying out of order

“Folks, the only bully in the Statehouse chamber Wednesday night was Nikki Haley. Not a real contender in the 2016 presidential race, she must just have needed to create some kind of false bogeyman to feel warm and cuddly about herself.”

by · 01/26/2015 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views