Staff reports | North Charleston Democratic Rep. Wendell Gilliard described the state Department of Health and Environmental Control as chronically short-staffed and underfunded in a Friday story in sister publication Statehouse Report. He said while testing supplies were a nationwide issue, the state agency struggled with responding to public needs.
IN THIS EDITION:
TODAY’S FOCUS: Start printing masks now
COMMENTARY, Brack: Issue stay-at-home order now, governor
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Charleston International Airport
MY TURN, Knapp: State’s economy will survive if small businesses survive
NEWS BRIEFS: City has weathered past scourges
FEEDBACK: Send us a letter
MYSTERY PHOTO: View from above
CALENDAR: Lots to do at home online
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Shame on a majority of the legislatively-elected S.C. Supreme Court for letting the General Assembly off the hook on funding poor, rural schools. State leaders haven’t yet spent enough money or done enough work to upgrade these neglected schools so that they’re on par with urban and suburban public schools.
On Nov. 17, the court ruled 3-2 to dismiss the 24-year-old Abbeville v. State of South Carolina school equity funding lawsuit. The order, however, is premature because state legislators only started moving these schools toward parity after a 2014 order by the court. Now without the court’s oversight, there’s no pressure on the General Assembly to make good on its promises.
With gazillions of dollars of state funding needs, do you really trust legislators not to continue a legacy of inattention in the so-called “Corridor of Shame” area where a multitude of challenges persist?
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | The General Assembly’s 2017 legislative session is sure to be remembered for a long time as a wild ride.
Two things stand out. First, who in the world would have thought the Republican-led legislature would have given millions of dollars in tax relief to working people in South Carolina in a bill to hike taxes to fix roads? Most of the time, tax breaks go to the rich.
By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Larry Grooms and Vincent Sheheen pored over spreadsheets for weeks looking for a solution that hornswoggled their state Senate colleagues for three years: A practical way to raise the state’s gas tax to fix roads.
By Wednesday, an idea by Republican Grooms – allowing state drivers to get rebates of their portion of the 12-cents-per-gallon hike in the gas user fee – blended with tax cut priorities by Sheheen, a Democrat, to cobble together a piece of winning legislation. While Sheheen brought a solid bloc of the minority Democrats to the table, Senate President Pro Tem Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, and Grooms delivered a group of moderate Republicans who stuck together, vote after vote, to thwart filibuster threats and get the bill passed.
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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