In response to blistering criticism of his vote to sell out South Carolina’s school children, S.C. Sen. Paul Campbell took to the Lowcountry airwaves this week to try and do a little damage control. Campbell gave an interview to WTMA (Charleston, S.C.) radio host Tara Servatius in which he claimed he really supports school choice, but voted [...]
Irony, Thou Art SC School Buses
South Carolina runs the nation’s worst K-12 school system – and is the only state in the South that hasn’t authorized some form of private parental choice.
This monolithic, monopolistic government-run system – which continues to produce declining results (despite massive increases in funding) - is also the only government-run education establishment that operates its own school [...]
The SC Senate’s New Swing Vote
As we’ve noted on repeated occasions there is a contingent of “Republicans” in the South Carolina Senate that habitually join Democrats in support of all manner of big government boondoggling … while opposing all manner of tax relief and free market reforms.
It’s been this way for years, which is why the first decade of “Republican” [...]
SC Senate Wants Massive Tax Hikes On Motorists
While South Carolina state government pours hundreds of millions of dollars down the drain on its failing K-12 education system, bloated and duplicative higher education system, state-sponsored tourism marketing and so called “economic development” deals – its roads and bridges have fallen into disrepair (although the extent of that is up for debate).
Despite passing record-setting [...]
SC Senate Leaders Comment On Ethics Reform
Columbia, SC-May 2, 2013- Senate leaders today issued the following statement on the House-passed ethics reform bill that was today assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee:
“Time is of the essence, and we appreciate the House’s passage of the bill so that we can consider it and get it passed before the end of the session,” [...]
SC State Senator Hospitalized
S.C. Senator Billy O’Dell (RINO-Abbeville) has been admitted to a hospital in Greenwood, S.C. for pneumonia, multiple sources have confirmed to FITS.
Prior to being admitted, the 74-year-old lawmaker complained to friends and family about what he believed to be a bad allergic reaction to the springtime pollen, although doctors quickly diagnosed it as something more [...]
Another Boeing Handout …
Courtesy of their corrupt elected officials, South Carolina taxpayers have already given aircraft manufacturer Boeing $900 million worth of taxpayer-funded incentives. On top of that Boeing gets subsidies courtesy of the U.S. Export-Import Bank not to mention billions of dollars annually in federal defense contracts.
But hey, the company is lining the pockets of South Carolina [...]
Katrina Shealy Mulls “Major” Income Tax Cut
The lone female member of the South Carolina Senate is poised to become the only lawmaker in Columbia proposing anything resembling substantive tax relief.
Or so we’re told …
Katrina Shealy – an independent petition candidate who knocked off one of the State Senate’s top fiscal liberals in 2012 – is preparing what sources describe as a [...]
SC Ballot Fix: Needless “Reform”
Fiscally liberal South Carolina State Senators are patting themselves on the back after passing a “ballot fix” bill which aims to avoid a repeat of last year’s election debacle – which effectively disenfranchised thousands of voters.
In a story first reported here on FITS, hundreds of candidates for local and legislative office failed to properly file [...]
SC Senate Passes “Ballot Fix” Bill
After a third reading today, the Senate the “Equal Access to the Ballot Act” to fix a technicality that kicked hundreds of candidates off the ballot in 2012.
The bill, S.2, sponsored by Senators Campsen, Martin, Cromer and Hayes, will make the requirements of incumbents and challengers equal. It also clarifies the law to state that [...]
SC Government Solidifies Its Gambling Monopoly
THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN … STILL
Last year S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley shot down a proposed casino resort in Hardeeville, S.C. This year her “Republican” allies in the State Senate – led by anti-free market former Democrat Larry Martin (RINO-Pickens) – have passed legislation cracking down on so-called internet sweepstakes machines.
Martin and fellow fiscal liberal [...]
SC Senate Bans “Sweepstakes Machines”
Columbia, SC – January 15, 2013 – Internet “sweepstakes machines” will be banned under a new law passed on second reading by the state Senate today.
The bill, S.3, sponsored by Senator Wes Hayes, Senate Judiciary Chairman Larry Martin and others, clarifies what the gambling industry claims is a loophole in the current law that allows [...]
