Tag: Ethics

Bureaucracy to prevail at expense of the taxpayer

S.C. General Assembly Up to Old Tricks

With pressing needs on infrastructure, education and ethics, the S.C. General Assembly is instead focusing on how to negatively affect local governments.

H3374, which was passed favorably out of a House Ways and Means subcommittee last week, would further shift the costs of providing state services onto the backs of local government. It is expected to be considered in the full House Ways and Means Committee as early as this week.

The bill effectively makes additional cuts to the local government fund, the fund which transfers money from the state to local governments to cover the cost state services at the county levels.

SCGOP In-Fighting

Nikki Haley’s October Surprise

Last October, during her reelection campaign, Gov. Nikki Haley told South Carolinians that she had a secret plan to fix the state’s roads she would announce after the election.

When the election was won, Haley said she couldn’t divulge the road maintenance plan until the New Year, but it would be obvious in her budget.

When Haley’s budget was made public last week, there was no money or plans to fix the state’s roads.

Legislative Session Opens Amid Disarray in S.C. Government

The legislative session that opens today in Columbia has every opportunity of demonstrating just how weak and ineffective S.C. Government really is.

Several months ago, the S.C. Supreme Court ruled that S.C. government isn’t doing enough to ensure students in poor, rural school districts receive even the “minimally adequate” education required by the state constitution.

South Carolina has reached a critical juncture where a maintenance plan must be developed to fix its crumbling roads and bridges.

General Assembly Failing Citizens Again

S.C. General Assembly Failing Citizens Again

This year’s legislative session is down to the last four days and members of the General Assembly are again making sure nothing meaningful will come out of this session.

The Senate killed any chance for ethics reform with a vote that refused to move the ethics reform bill up in the waiting queue. So legislators will maintain ethics investigations in house, actually that means there won’t be any investigations, and we will again not know what their private sources of income are.

Earlier, a bill to expand the Freedom of Information Act was buried in the House where it was recommitted to the Judiciary Committee after getting a favorable vote out earlier. We wouldn’t want the members of the General Assembly to have to divulge their e-mails and other correspondence to the general public. Better they remain secret.

Governor Nikki Haley’s EthicsReforms – Style Trumps Substance

Haley’s Ethics – Style Trumps Substance

Gov. Nikki Haley’s run around the state this week promoting ethics reform was a perfect example of disingenuous political posturing.

Haley must be given credit for several things. She knows how to define the message and present herself in the best possible political light. After this week’s demonstration, one could almost think Haley supports real ethics reform.

Nothing could be further from the truth. She supposedly supports transparency in government while her administration continuously refuses to follow the guidelines of the state’s weak freedom of information act.