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. [...]

One Vote Could Sink SC Educrats’ Exploitation

We hear excuses every day from status quo backers in Columbia as to why South Carolina’s public education system is so atrocious.
It’s poverty, they say. Or racism. Or insufficient funding. Or it’s the fault of parents. Then there’s our favorite excuse – that the ongoing debate over parental choice has “shifted our leaders’ focus away [...]

SC: Where One Size (Still) Fits All

By one vote, South Carolina’s “Republican-controlled” House of Representatives killed a universal school choice bill that would have provided expanded academic options for all parents and a lifeline for more than 100,000 children trapped in failing public schools.
The debate took less than half an hour – which is interesting when you consider that lawmakers spent [...]

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 [...]

Another Harrell Challenger?

We take anything published on SC Hotline with the proverbial ocean of salt, but given the heat that’s on S.C. House Speaker Bobby Harrell following his recent botched robo-call (the latest skirmish in the South Carolina GOP’s ongoing civil war) … it’s possible that he could really be facing a new threat to his powerful [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]