SC House “Republicans” Fall Short On Fiscal Conservative Votes

FISCAL LIBERALS DOMINATE PALMETTO STATE’S “GOP-CONTROLLED” HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Last week we took a look at the abysmal scores recorded by “Republican” members of the S.C. Senate on the S.C. Club for Growth’s 2012 legislative scorecards. This week we look at the scores put up by the S.C. House of Representatives – which is also controlled (in [...]

SC House Bans Gubernatorial Lobbying

The S.C. House of Representatives voted on Tuesday to ban taxpayer-funded lobbying in the governor’s office – putting S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley in the awkward position of having to lobby the legislature to overturn the amendment.
First, here’s the text of the amendment (sponsored by S.C. Rep. Boyd Brown) that passed the House:
SECTION 1B, Amendment 95
Rep. [...]

SCGOP: Make School Choice A Reality In SC

Dear Fellow Republican,
Our Republican majorities in the South Carolina Senate and House have an historic opportunity to make school choice a reality in South Carolina this year. School Choice has been a plank in our state and national platforms for years – and was an idea that former President Ronald Reagan fought for decades ago.
Over the [...]

SC Educrats: The Tables Are Turning

For years, South Carolina’s big-spending public school bureaucrats (a.k.a. “educrats”) were on the offensive in their battle to preserve our state’s failed monopolistic status quo.
The funding and academic numbers weren’t on their side (far from it, in fact), but these well-heeled purveyors of failure were nonetheless able to continue living large – drawing their six-figure [...]

Herbkersman: Their Agenda, Your Money

By Bill Herbkersman || ‘NEA and its affiliates have been singled out because they are the most effective unions in the United States … they must never lose sight of the fact that they are unions, and what unions do first and foremost is represent their members.”
That statement from Bob Chanin, on his retirement a [...]

SCGOP Flees “Exchange” Bill

“Run away! Run away!”
No, this isn’t a scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, it’s the scene that’s unfolding at the S.C. State House after several “Republican” lawmakers got their hands caught in Barack Obama’s cookie jar.
Several SCGOP lawmakers are now fleeing a bill they previously sponsored that would have established a government-run, Massachusetts-style [...]

“Coastal Kickback” Scam Update

Every time we think it couldn’t possibly get any more corrupt, the “Coastal Kickback” – a brazen pay-to-play scam involving numerous South Carolina politicians – finds a way to prove us wrong.
In case you’re new to FITS, this scam began last May when the city of Myrtle Beach, S.C. passed a one cent sales tax [...]

Sheheen Rolls Out Reforms

S.C. Senator Vincent Sheheen may have lost the Palmetto state’s governor’s race last month – but he’s still pushing ideas that he believes will make South Carolina’s state government more efficient and accountable to the taxpayers it’s supposed to serve.
Some of them actually will …
On Thursday, Sheheen rolled out a six-piece reform agenda that includes [...]

Effort To Ban Taxpayer-Funded Educrat Lobbying Fails

By FITSNews || So much for South Carolina lawmakers working to “put more money into the classroom …”
Last Thursday – by a one-vote margin – the “GOP-controlled” S.C. House of Representatives rejected a proposal that would have prohibited school districts from routing taxpayer money to fund bureaucratic advocacy groups, which use the money to lobby [...]

Palmetto One: Aloft Again

A little over a week after serving as a very expensive taxpayer-funded taxi to a legislative boozefest in Winston-Salem, N.C. (just five hours away by car), South Carolina’s state-owned Beechcraft King Air is once again flying your friendly skies.
According to public flight data obtained by FITS, “Palmetto One” has been logging several short hops across [...]

Lawmakers Use Of Plane Questioned Further

S.C. lawmakers who used the state plane to travel to a “legislative conference” in Winston-Salem, N.C. last weekend – with a registered lobbyist in tow – are now facing heat from their colleagues over the flight. Specifically, one of their fellow legislators is publicly chastising them while another is looking to pre-file legislation that would [...]

Leaders Join Reformers On Key Transparency Legislation

The Speaker of the S.C. House of Representatives and Majority Leader of the State Senate have joined fiscal conservative reformers in supporting a key transparency initiative – the creation of an online checkbook that would track all taxpayer expenditures over $100.
House Speaker Bobby Harrell and Senate Majority Leader Harvey Peeler have signed on as co-sponsors [...]