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ISSUE 13.24
Jun. 13, 2014

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12/04 | 11/27 | 11/20 | 11/13

Index

News :
Ethics reform faces Senate test next week
Photo :
Crumbling corner, Orangeburg, S.C.
Legislative Agenda :
Lawmakers return next week
Radar Screen :
Returning to the status quo?
Palmetto Politics :
Budget vetoes about what was expected
Commentary :
Do something so we don’t have more school shootings
Spotlight :
Time Warner Cable
My Turn :
Too much power
Feedback :
Two words: Term limits
Scorecard :
Thumbs up for Graham, down about Carter's passing
Megaphone :
Yeah, 200,000 people are proud of this
Encyclopedia :
Alice Ravenel Huger Smith

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NUMBER OF THE WEEK

76

Number of budget vetoes issued this week by Gov. Nikki Haley. Legislators will return to Columbia next week to consider a limited number of items in a session that can last only three days. See more below.

MEGAPHONE

Yeah, 200,000 people are proud of this

“We can be proud that we have again rejected efforts to force South Carolina to accept the Medicaid expansion under Obamacare.”

-- Gov. Nikki Haley in her June 11 veto letter.  More than 200,000 people in South Carolina can’t afford Obama because they’re too poor. If the state accepted billions in federal money to expand Medicaid, they’d get the care they need for free.

ENCYCLOPEDIA

Alice Ravenel Huger Smith

Alice Ravenel Huger Smith was born in Charleston on July 14, 1876, the daughter of Daniel Elliott Huger Smith and Caroline Ravenel. Although largely self-taught, Smith emerged as the leading artist of the Charleston Renaissance. Through her writings and art she helped to disseminate the history and charm of her native Lowcountry to a national audience.

Reticent and claiming to be too poor to seek training away from Charleston, Smith received her only formal art education as a young girl in classes offered by the Carolina Art Association. Louise Fery, a Frenchwoman, instructed her students in the basics and, most importantly for Smith, in the technique of watercolor. Smith's initial output was modest: fans, dance programs, cards painted with flowers, small sketches of African Americans, and occasional portraits of family members. She sought lessons from the tonalist landscape painter and teacher Birge Harrison, from Woodstock, New York, who sojourned several winters in Charleston beginning in 1908. Harrison, while refusing to give formal instruction, offered guidance and served as her mentor until his death.


Beginning about 1917, Smith undertook an intense study of Japanese color wood-block prints, largely from the ukiyo-e school, which had been collected by her friend Motte Alston Read. Smith cataloged the collection and, experimenting with actual blocks, taught herself how to print in the traditional Japanese manner. Synthesizing the methods of the Japanese with Lowcountry imagery, Smith invented a visual language that would remain with her throughout her life. In 1923 Smith spearheaded the founding of the Charleston Etchers Club, a collaborative group that jointly acquired a press and shared expertise and criticism. By the late 1920s Smith abandoned prints and began to concentrate on watercolor.

Through her evocative imagery Smith fueled the Charleston Renaissance, the cultural and economic renewal of the city. During the 1920s paintings and prints by Smith were included in forty-two exhibitions, mostly one-artist presentations. For example, in 1924 she sent sixty-eight paintings to the Philadelphia Art Alliance; entitled "Watercolors of the Carolina Coast," the selection included typical southern flora and fauna-lotus, magnolias, ibises, and egrets. Of the thirty-one works listed in her ledger for that year, she sold twelve works to Philadelphians. Her account books from throughout her career record a widespread national clientele, many of whom visited Smith in her studio.

Smith was also active in the field of publishing. She provided the illustrations for Elizabeth Allston Pringle's A Woman Rice Planter (1913) and in 1914 issued Twenty Drawings of the Pringle House, a portfolio of drawings of the historic Miles Brewton House. In The Dwelling Houses of Charleston, South Carolina (1917) Smith's illustrations accompany her father's house histories. This volume was critical to the evolution of the city's preservation movement; it not only instilled pride among Charlestonians for their architectural heritage but also brought national attention to the city. Smith's most ambitious volume was A Carolina Rice Plantation of the Fifties (1936), which combined an essay on rice cultivation by Herbert Ravenel Sass, her father's recollections of growing up on a rice plantation, and thirty color reproductions of her watercolors. In 1940 she authored an introduction and oversaw the publication of A Charleston Sketchbook, 1796-1806, by the nineteenth-century artist Charles Fraser. Always keenly interested in heritage, architecture, and preservation, Smith was a member of the committee that researched and published This Is Charleston (1944), an inventory of Charleston architecture.

Around 1950 Smith began to write her reminiscences. In them she traces her family's history, recollections of the earthquake of 1886 and later hurricanes, comments on social mores, and her view of art. The Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston is the major repository of her work. Other South Carolina museums have representative examples of her paintings. Smith died in Charleston on February 3, 1958, and was buried in Magnolia Cemetery.

-- Excerpted from the entry by Martha R. Severens. To read more about this or 2,000 other entries about South Carolina, check out The South Carolina Encyclopedia by USC Press. (Information used by permission.)

PALMETTO PRIORITIES

Palmetto Priorities Statehouse Report encourages state leaders to develop and implement Palmetto Priorities involving several issues to make the state better a better place. Click the link to learn more about our suggestions for bipartisan policy objectives.

Here is a summary of our Palmetto Priorities:

CORRECTIONS: Reduce the prison population by 25 percent by 2020.

EDUCATION: Cut the state's dropout rate in half by 2020.

ELECTIONS: Increase voter registration to 75 percent by 2015.

ENVIRONMENT: Adopt a state energy policy that requires energy producers to generate 20 percent of energy from renewable sources by 2020.

ETHICS: Overhaul state ethics laws.

HEALTH CARE: Ensure affordable and accessible health care.

JOBS: Develop a Cabinet-level post to add, retain 10,000 small business jobs per year.

POLITICS: Have a vigorous two- or multi-party political system of governance.

ROADS: Strengthen all bridges and upgrade state roads by 2015.

SAFETY: Cut the state's violent crime rate by one-third by 2016.

TAX REFORM: Remove outdated special interest sales tax exemptions as part of an overall reform of the state's tax structure to be completed by 2014.

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News

Ethics reform faces Senate test next week

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher

JUNE 13, 2014 -- The most comprehensive ethics reform in 20 years will live or die next week in the South Carolina Senate after years of hard work and anticipation.

Just before the regular session expired last week, the S.C. House voted 101-12 to approve a 37-page conference report that included major new reforms, such as elimination of leadership political action committees, more detailed income reporting by public officials and more transparency about independent expenditures spent to influence elections.

KEY COMPONENTS

Here are major parts of the ethics reform measure:

  • Hearings of the State Ethics Commission and legislative ethics committees will be open to the public.
  • Legislators must attend an ethics seminar every two years.
  • Legislative ethics committees can issue formal advisory opinions, which must be written.
  • Legislators much make significantly more disclosures about income sources and amounts.
  • Committees seeking to influence elections must disclose donors and amounts.
  • Eliminates leadership PACs.
  • Eliminates petty cash funds for candidates.
  • Authorizes a study committee to look assess ethics rules and violations.
“I hope that this being a major step forward is not lost,” said Sen. Wes Hayes, the York County Republican who has pushed for reform for years. “This going a long way in putting South Carolina on the forefront of having a tough ethics law, which is where we ought to be.”

Left out of the report was a House-backed measure that sought to have a new independent investigation agency to probe ethics complaints against elected officials, including members of the judiciary. That measure was viewed as too controversial to some senators and was taken out of the conference report, sources said. Hayes added that it may return as a separate bill in the future.

Advocates of more reform lament the loss of some kind of independent agency, but say significant accountability and transparency reform is better than nothing.

“It is imperfect. It is not ideal from anyone’s perspective,” Lynn Shuler Teague of the League of Women Voters of South Carolina wrote June 7 in the Statehouse Report blog. “It does, however, contain many good and important things, among them disclosure of all sources of officials’ income, prohibition of so-called ‘leadership PACs’ and an end to campaign attacks by anonymous donors.

“These are essential changes. Make them.”

What will happen next week?

GOP leaders say they expect the ethics reform legislation to pass, in part because Gov. Nikki Haley made it clear June 5 on Twitter that she would sign the bill.

“The Senate is debating whether they should pass a bill that would require them to disclose income, and there seems to be some confusion ...,” she wrote in one Twitter message, which was followed by this: “... as to whether I support it. Yes, I do. So any senators using me as an excuse should sit down, pass the bill, and I will sign it.”

But at the end of the session, the bill was being filibustered by state Sen. Lee Bright, R-Spartanburg, who said he wanted more time to ready the conference report. Bright, who was one of six challengers to lose a primary bid Tuesday to U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, did not return calls.

“If we can get to a vote, it will pass,” Hayes said. “The only question in my mind is whether we have the votes to break a filibuster.”

According to Senate rules, the ethics bill would require a three-fifths vote of senators in the chamber. 

Senate Judiciary Chair Larry Martin, R-Pickens, said he would be “very upset if they try to hold it up when we come back. My hope is we’ll be good to go when we go back and we’ll be ready to vote.”

Martin agreed with Hayes that the bill currently under consideration should be considered a big win because 75 percent to 80 percent of what reformers wanted was in it. 

Questions about an independent investigatory authority likely would become clearer later this year when the state Supreme Court rules on which body -- the Attorney General or the legislative ethics committees -- have jurisdiction of legislative ethics oversight. That matter involves the continuing spat over ethics allegations involving House Speaker Bobby Harrell, who claims legislative bodies are supposed to investigate ethics claims against legislators, while Attorney General Alan Wilson says investigations are matters for law enforcement agencies.

ALPHABET SOUP: Statehouse Report incorrectly reported last week that an agency in Gov. Nikki Haley's cabinet had sent out hundreds of millions of dollars in improper payouts. Which is accurate; but we incorrectly identified the correct agency. It was DHHS. Our apologies or confusion this may have caused.

-- Bill Davis, senior editor

RECENT NEWS STORIES

Photo

Crumbling corner, Orangeburg, S.C.


This crumbling corner on Russell Street near the center of downtown in Orangeburg, S.C., illustrates the challenge that some inner cities have in attract businesses to lure residents to spend time in their downtown.  More photos at SouthernCrescent.org
Legislative Agenda

Lawmakers return next week

The General Assembly will return for its “sine die” session at noon Tuesday to consider a major ethics reform compromise and whether to accept or override more than 70 budget vetoes by Gov. Nikki Haley. Also on tap for the week:

  • Enterprise Act. The conference committee working on the Clemson Enterprise Act, which includes language to allow the College of Charleston to become a research university, meets 11 a.m. June 17 in 105 Gressette.
Radar Screen

Returning to the status quo?

Leading state senators believe that Sen. Yancey McGill, D-Kingstree, will step down next week to become president pro tempore and eventually lieutenant governor after the current office-holder, Glenn McConnell, steps down so he can become president of the College of Charleston. As soon as McGill puts on the purple robe of lieutenant governor, look for state Sen. John Courson, R-Columbia, to step back into the position of president pro tem, which he resigned so he wouldn’t have to become short-time second fiddle to Gov. Nikki Haley.

Palmetto Politics

Budget vetoes about what was expected

Gov. Nikki Haley’s 28-page list of 76 budget vetoes is about what legislators expected, sources say. And next week during their special session, they’ll probably override most of them, as in years past.

Haley vetoed things she considered earmarks or money for special interests as well as “several provisos that plainly undermine the rule of law.” 

Among items that she nitpicked about were positions funded for archivists, a conservationist, researchers, an extension agent and a tourism program to bolster “undiscovered South Carolina.” She also vetoed provisos in the budget for things she considered duplicative or unnecessary because of other laws. And she issued vetoes for what she considered micromanagement (two bus shops, a prohibition on bus air conditioning and a health care study committee). She spurned several higher education, health  and history-related “earmarks.”

Be on the lookout for whether the General Assembly will agree with her veto of a legislative pay raise and a veto of $3 million for home and community-based services for seniors. It’s a program that Lt. Gov. Glenn McConnell has been lobbying hard for and legislators seem to like.

Finish the job

The General Assembly is about $40 million away from making public 4-year-old kindergarten available across the state for poor kids. 

In 2013-14 budget, the General Assembly expanded an early childhood education program from 34 poor districts to 51 districts though a special $26.1 million appropriation. In the 2014-15 budget that just passed, the legislature added another $20 million in funding, which added 10 more districts to the Child Development Education Program. 

Now there’s only 20 districts -- the more affluent ones across the state -- to add. And many say it’s the right thing to do because a poor kid in York District 4, which has the lowest district poverty rate (28 percent) in the state, is still poor and can benefit from early childhood education. But legislative lookouts warn that the fight to finish the job might be tougher in these districts because child care providers will see the free 4K program for poor kids as competition and may want concessions (i.e., a way to dip their businesses into the public trough).

All a-titter about Haley’s twittering

The Internets went a little nuts nationally about a post that Gov. Nikki Haley, or one of her aides, put on Instagram. Seems as if the post got automatically shortened because it was longer than 140 characters, which ended up with a summary that didn’t look too flattering:


That post was later replaced by this:


The full post read:

 
Commentary

Do something so we don’t have more school shootings

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher

JUNE 13, 2014 -- The worry starts with news reports about another school shooting somewhere in America. 

I worry about it happening at my children’s schools, in my neighborhood, in my community and in our state. Like many, I figure the likelihood of it happening is very small and that our kids’ schools do a good job in being safe.

But in my soul of souls, I realize this is pure rationalization. With 300 million handguns in the United States, with a new law that allows people to take weapons into bars and restaurants in South Carolina, with the constant spin from the gun lobby that guns don’t kill people (people do), it’s going to happen at some time. Unless something is done.

In fact, it already has happened.

In the 78 weeks since a man shot and killed 20 children and 6 adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., there have been at least 74 school shootings across America, according to Everytown, a movement to end gun violence and build a safer America.

One of those shootings was in Orangeburg at S.C. State University earlier this year. In January, football player Brandon Robinson, 20, was shot to death after an argument outside a college dorm. The next day, a 19-year-old man was arrested and charged with murder. 

But that wasn’t the first school-related shooting in the Palmetto State.  Three students died and 27 were injured in 1968 in Orangeburg as police fired on students at a segregation protest. This incident is commonly referred to as the Orangeburg Massacre. In 1994, two men fired 14 shots at an S.C. State campus dorm, injuring three.

In 1988 at Oakland Elementary School in Greenwood, a 19-year-old man opened fire, killing two 8-year-old girls and wounding eight people. In 1994, media reports show a Goose Creek High School student was shot in the head while observing a fistfight. In 1995, a 16-year-old student at Blackville-Hilda High School shot himself after killing a teacher and wounding another.

The list goes on. In 2007, a Myrtle Beach student who had a handgun in his pocket shot himself in the leg while at school. In 2010, a Socastee High School freshman reportedly shot at an on-campus officer. The next year, four Myrtle Beach High School students skipped school and were in an apartment where one juvenile playing with a .38-caliber revolver apparently accidently shot a friend, who was wounded in the right ear and shoulder. 

Unless something is done, things aren’t going to get better. Unfortunately, that means more school shootings in South Carolina. Principals know it. Teachers know it. Police officers know it. You know it.

South Carolina is ranked fifth nationally in violent crime, according to data from the FBI. In 2010, the state had 597.7 instances of violent crime per 100,000 people. Compare that to Wyoming, which has the fifth-lowest violent crime rate (201.4 instances per 100,000 people). 

Would it surprise you that Wyoming has the highest gun ownership of any state at 59.7 percent, but only five gun murders in 2010? Some 42.3 percent of South Carolinians own guns, but the state, which has eight times more people than Wyoming, had 207 gun deaths in 2010.

Things can be done to thwart bad people with guns and to ensure that people who really want them can get them. There can be tougher background checks to close loopholes. There can be more education to prevent deaths and promote responsible gun ownership. There can be tougher laws to get guns out of the hands of domestic abusers. And we could reconsider the law that allows people to tote guns in bars and restaurants. 

If I were king for a day, I’d get rid of most handguns and go the way of England, France, Australia and other developed countries. But because that’s not likely to happen, we need to do what we can to curb gun violence instead of continuing to give in to gun culture propaganda perpetuated by the National Rifle Association. 

And it wouldn’t hurt if our politicians would stop being cowed by the NRA and start thinking of real ways to make schools and communities safer from gun violence. 

Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report.  He can be reached at:  brack@statehousereport.com.

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My Turn

Too much power

By former U.S. Sen. Fritz Hollings
Special to Statehouse Report

JUNE 12, 2014 -- I’m not worried about the middle class. I’m not worried about the rich or inequality. I’m worried about the country. I ‘m worried about the country’s economy. 

Wall Street, which includes the Big Banks and Corporate America, has the President and Congress constantly seeking growth in the economy – so much so that the economy suffers from an enlarged debt. Now a Professor in the Harvard Business School, Gautum Mukunda, writes in the Harvard Business Review (6/4/14) that Wall Street exercises too much power in the economy. He states: “The American economy is suffering from an enlarged heart” and he lists several reforms to correct “the enlarged heart”. Wall Street’s marijuana need of “growth” in the economy excuses Washington’s scandalous conduct. The richest nation continues on borrowed billions for fourteen years. 

In 2001, we gave President George W. Bush a balanced budget. The first thing he called for was tax cuts for “growth” in the economy. Then the Afghanistan War. We’ve always paid for our wars but Bush said we didn’t need to pay for the Afghanistan War because of the need for “growth”. Then, he instituted prescription drugs, stimulations, bailouts, government spending – all without paying for them –increasing the national debt $5 trillion in eight years. Now, President Obama increases the national debt $7 trillion in six years. The U.S. paid for all its wars, depressions, recessions, government and it took over 200 years to incur a national debt of $1 trillion in 1981. Bush and Obama have increased the national debt $12 trillion in fourteen years.  No one mentions it.   CBO estimates that the deficit this year will be $514 billion. That means that we’ll borrow half a trillion dollars this year to keep the doors open. The interest costs on the national debt already amounts to $423 billion and in ten years, CBO estimates that the interest cost will be $1.2 trillion. Absolute waste. Nobody cares. 

Wall Street supports this scandalous conduct. It could care less about the economy of the U.S. It cares about the economy of China. Wall Street wants to keep the China profits flowing, to keep the market up. It contributes to the President and Congress to oppose making it attractive to invest and produce in the U.S.; to oppose the VAT tax cut and to oppose enforcing our trade laws against the closed market and predatory practices of China. Wall Street says the VAT is complicated, difficult to administer. 160 countries use the VAT, that’s rebated on exports, and don’t find it complicated. In fact, foreign countries use the VAT to put our automobile industry out of business. BMW ships the parts to Greer, SC, pays American workers to assemble the parts and for the first five years BMW shipped the assembled cars back to Europe. Germany has a 19 percent VAT and BMW makes a big profit after assembling and shipping costs. Now for sale in the U.S., Mercedes, Nissan, Toyota, Volkswagen, Hyundai, Kia follow suit and Detroit goes broke. Not having a VAT stultifies manufacture in the U.S.  An entrepreneur in the U.S. has to pay the 35 percent Corporate Tax, that’s not rebated on exports, and when his exports reach China, a 17 percent VAT. A U.S. competitor can produce the same product in China, import it tax free, and put the entrepreneur out of business. All the economists talk of The Great Recession. The Great Recession has been over five years. The failure to limit the offshoring of our economy by making it attractive for Corporate America to invest and produce in America is the culprit.

I have been suggesting the replacement of the 35 percent Corporate Tax with a 7 percent VAT to all Senators, Republican and Democrat. This tax cut would immediately release $2 trillion in offshore profits for Corporate America to repatriate tax free and create millions of jobs. Last year’s Corporate Tax produced revenues of $288 billion in revenues. A 7 percent VAT for 2013 would have produced $945 billion permitting Congress to balance the budget in two years rather than ten. Congress says it’s for tax cuts and tax reform to close loopholes. The VAT tax cut closes all loopholes, giving instant tax reform. 

Wall Street contributes to the President and Congress against tax cuts and against protecting products vital to a strong economy. Wall Street gets rich as the United States goes broke. 

Hollings retired from the U.S. Senate in 2005 after serving South Carolina for 38 years.  You can read his latest commentaries at:  FritzHollings.com.
Feedback

Two words: Term limits

To the editor:

I can only add two words to this [Brack commentary] (and they can be considered nasty when used together, so legislature and state executives close your eyes) ... term limits!

-- Matthew Salinger, Houston, Texas

Don't keep your opinions to yourself. We love hearing from our readers and encourage you to share your opinions.  But you've got to provide us with contact information so we can verify your letters. Letters to the editor are published weekly. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.We generally publish all comments about South Carolina politics or policy issues, unless they are libelous or unnecessarily inflammatory. One submission is allowed per month. Submission of a comment grants permission to us to reprint. Comments are limited to 250 words or less.  Please include your name and contact information.  Send your letters to:

Scorecard

Thumbs up for Graham, down about Carter's passing

Graham. A year ago, few thought U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham would be able to hold off right-wing attacks inside his party, but he showed his mettle and power by trouncing six foes in the GOP primary on Tuesday so that he has no runoff at all.

Standards. Thumbs up to the state Board of Education for rejecting biology standards proposed that seemed to be a backdoor way to sneak creationism into science education. More.

Wilson. Thumbs up to Attorney General Alan Wilson for taking on the problem of human trafficking in South Carolina. But we’re not as pleased with a ruling that a Confederate flag can stay in the Citadel’s chapel. That many black South Carolinians -- and Citadel cadets -- would find this historical flag to be offensive seems to be lost in the discussion.

Carter. We’re saddened by the passing of former House Speaker Rex Carter, a great leader if there ever were one. More.

Making a living. Sad to hear that South Carolina continues to be one of the worst states in the country to make a living, according to a new study. More.
credits

Statehouse Report

Editor and Publisher: Andy Brack
Senior Editor: Bill Davis
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Phone: 843.670.3996

© 2002 - 2024 , Statehouse Report LLC. Statehouse Report is published every Friday by Statehouse Report LLC, PO Box 22261, Charleston, SC 29413.
Excerpts from The South Carolina Encyclopedia are published with permission and copyrighted 2006 by the Humanities Council SC. Excerpts were edited by Walter Edgar and published by the University of South Carolina Press. Statehouse Report has partnered with USC Press to provide readers with this interesting weekly historical excerpt about the state. Republication is not allowed. For additional information about Statehouse Report, including information on underwriting, go to http://www.statehousereport.com/.