JULY 3, 2014 -- Poverty is creeping closer to South Carolinians, according to a new report from the U.S. Census.

More than one in three people across the state -- 35.2 percent -- live in a neighborhood or community in which at least 20 percent of people live in poverty. Just 10 years ago in the Palmetto State, one in five people -- 20.8 percent of South Carolinians -- lived in these “poverty areas,” according to the June 30 American Community Survey report, “Changes in Areas with Concentrated Poverty: 2000 to 2010.”

Sue Berkowitz, director of the S.C. Appleseed Legal Justice Center, said she wasn’t surprised by the new report.

“As a state, we have not put resources into goods and services that can help people in need,” she said. “As our state leaders boast about cutting people off of welfare and put them into low-wage jobs, we have seen our poverty rate tick up.”

Half of state’s counties high in poverty areas

The number of South Carolinians who lived in poverty areas doubled from 806,795 people in 2000 to 1.6 million in 2010, according to the report. The Census Bureau defines “poverty areas” as census tracts (places of 1,200 to 8,000 people) in which at least 20 percent of residents live below the poverty level. 

Of particular concern now are eight South Carolina counties -- Allendale, Bamberg, Barnwell, Chesterfield, Dillon, Hampton, Lee and Marlboro -- that are home to residents in which 80 percent or more live in poverty areas.   Other counties:

• 15 counties have 50 percent to 79.9 percent of residents living in poverty areas.
  
  
• 13 counties have poverty areas that are home to 25 percent to 49.9 percent of people.
  
  
• Eight counties have 10 percent to 24.9 percent of people living in poverty areas.
  
  
• Two South Carolina counties -- Calhoun and McCormick -- have less than 10 percent people who live in poverty areas. 

Poverty areas spread in S.C.

Not everyone who lives in a poverty area lives in poverty, as highlighted in raw numbers:

This old GMC truck, despite its coat of rust, still has plenty of character as it sits beside U.S. Highway 52 in Florence County, notes Kingstree, S.C., photographer Linda W. Brown. See more photos at SouthernCrescent.org.

No meetings are currently scheduled at the Statehouse for next week. You might want to check for updates through these links:

• Senate meetings
  
  
• House meetings
  
  

If you had enough of convicted felon and former state Treasurer Thomas Ravenel in the undelightful reality series “Southern Charm,” hold on to your hats. He’s expected to announce an independent challenge to U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham in the fall election. Look for lots of quotable quotes, but there won’t be a Perot effect for Prince Charming: Graham will win in a landslide.

Gov. Nikki Haley obviously has figured out that it’s important to come up with a plan to deal with South Carolina’s crumbling highway infrastructure which has needs estimated at $29 billion. But her new plan -- replacing a $100 million “money tree” proposed earlier this year -- appears to be to talk about how she’ll have a plan -- two months after the election is over. Challenger Vincent Sheheen has a plan based on bonding and other tools. Even House Minority Leader Todd Rutherford, D-Columbia, offers upscale casinos as a possible revenue source.

Promises from a politician running for reelection? Say it ain’t so. More. And more.

JULY 3, 2014 -- They say you can’t legislate morality. But you can open doors and right public wrongs through legislation, which is exactly what happened 50 years ago when President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act.

“The purpose of the law is simple,” Johnson explained when signing the law, which passed both houses of Congress with a majority of votes from the Democratic and Republican parties. “It does not restrict the freedom of any American, so long as he respects the rights of others. It does not give special treatment to any citizen.

“It does say the only limit to a man's hope for happiness, and for the future of his children, shall be his own ability. It does say that there are those who are equal before God shall now also be equal in the polling booths, in the classrooms, in the factories, and in hotels, restaurants, movie theaters and other places that provide service to the public.”

Before the Civil Rights Act, African Americans in South Carolina and throughout the South faced conditions of institutional apartheid. Blacks were limited in where they could eat, sleep and take part in public debate. They had to drink from water fountains marked “blacks only.” They often faced challenges when trying to vote and few held public office as segregation -- although illegal in schools since the 1954 Brown v. Board decision -- kept its firm grip on the state and region.

But South Carolina, unlike most other Southern states, moved relatively calmly toward integration without the grand public displays of violence found in Alabama, Mississippi and elsewhere. 

Looking today at South Carolina, it’s clear the state has come a long way despite venomous opposition decades ago to the Civil Rights Act by legendary U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond and others. South Carolina, in fact, was an integral part of electing the nation’s first black president, Barack Obama, during the 2008 primary season.

But more needs to be done because discrimination in South Carolina -- and throughout America -- is far from gone. It has just shifted from the daylight of “whites only” bathrooms and schools into covert, dark places filled with code words and a special language about “those people” or “that president.”

College of Charleston history professor Tammy Ingram observed the Civil Rights Act eliminated many conspicuous forms of discrimination in public places and public forums. 

“We’ve simply moved from an era of massive resistance [to integration] to one of masked resistance,” she says. “Discrimination today seems more innocuous because school zoning laws and tax structures -- not Jim Crow laws or white mobs -- keep residential neighborhoods and public schools segregated by both race and class.  It has been institutionalized.  The consequences are pretty serious, especially where public schools are concerned.”

In other words, racial discrimination -- the flashpoint of the civil rights movement that ignited passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act -- has transformed over 50 years into economic discrimination. Today’s laws outlaw discrimination in the public sector, which is why blacks have voting power and serve in public office with few problems. 

But what happens now outside the public realm -- in homes, churches, clubs and neighborhoods -- is a much tougher nut to crack. As such, what needs to be done today to ensure the promise of freedom to all and curb economic injustice for Americans might be even more difficult than what happened 50 years ago. Evidence: Many say our current political polarization has created such a negative climate that the Civil Rights Act might not pass today.

So as we recall the anniversary of the Civil Rights Act’s stepping stone for freedom, let’s remember how Johnson ended his talk:

“Let us close the springs of racial poison. Let us pray for wise and understanding hearts. Let us lay aside irrelevant differences and make our Nation whole. Let us hasten that day when our unmeasured strength and our unbounded spirit will be free to do the great works ordained for this Nation by the just and wise God who is the Father of us all.”

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

• 6/27: Robocall ruling will allow for more invasion of privacy
  
• 6/20:  Ervin may have Perot effect
• 6/13:  Do something so no more school shootings
• 6/6: S.C. drama good enough for Hollywood
• MORE BRACK:  See our archives
• FEEDBACK:  feedback@statehousereport.com
  

By Frank Adams
Special to Statehouse Report

JULY 3, 2014 -- What’s Gov. Nikki Haley got against old folks? Doesn’t she have a clue that her 69,000-vote margin of victory four years ago against Democrat Vince Sheheen likely came from the pool of 356,215 votes cast by the 65+ group, which AP exit polls suggest went Republican at a rate of 62 percent -- meaning she picked up almost 85,000 votes from the very people she keeps slapping?

After all, last year she and Treasurer Curtis Loftis teamed up with Comptroller Richard Eckstrom to use their Budget and Control Board votes to require 75,000 state retirees to pay higher insurance premiums out of their limited-income pockets even though the legislature had provided for those costs in the budget. (The courts quickly derailed her plans.)

This year, she vetoed $2 million in funding for senior programs because the resulting 31 percent increase in the Lieutenant Governor’s Office on Aging would be “excessive spending.” What was interesting was what her veto message did not say: She was not concerned whether new or existing funds were being administered properly, nor did she report receiving complaints about the office or contest the need for the services. 

Her mathematical focus ignored census data showing a 15.3 percent increase in South Carolina’s overall population during the past decade -- the 10th fastest growth in the nation. A statistic woefully missing from the governor’s calculations is that the number of its 60+ citizens has grown 40.1 percent, or nearly three times than that 10th fastest rate in the nation.

Happily, 103 members of the House voted to override Haley’s veto on June 17, and 39 senators followed suit on June 18. Thanks to those 142 legislators, funding for senior services will not be reduced by $2 million. The 10 legislators – six House members and four senators – who voted to uphold her veto share common characteristics:  They are Republican; the six from the House are unopposed for re-election; and they all live in either the Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson region in the Upstate or in York-Lancaster south of Charlotte. They are:

• Eric Bedingfield, 47, R-Greenville. 
• Bill Chumley, 67, R-Spartanburg.
• Ralph Norman, 61, R-York.
• G.R. Smith, 57, R-Greenville.
• Tommy Stringer, R-Greenville. 
• Anne Thayer, R-Anderson.
• Lee Bright, 44, R-Greenville-Spartanburg.
• Kevin Bryant, 47, R-Anderson.
• Tom Corbin, 49, R-Greenville-Spartanburg.
• Greg Gregory, 51, R-Lancaster-York.

Whether they are simply unaware or even uncaring, the 10 are obviously untroubled that their five home counties are experiencing major increases in their senior populations over the past decade:

• Spartanburg grew 12 percent overall, with the 60-plus group increasing 29.4 percent.
• Anderson grew 12.95 percent, while its elder population increased 32.9 percent.
• Greenville grew 18.9 percent overall, with the 60-plus group increasing 38.5 percent.
• York jumped 37.3 percent, while its senior population escalated by 62.6 percent.
• Lancaster had a 24.9 percent growth, with a senior population increase of 67.7 percent.

Here are more numbers: The percentage of people 65 and older who have voted in the last decade’s statewide elections: 2012 Republican primary, 44 percent; 2010 general election, 33.5 percent; 2008 Republican primary, 35.6 percent; 2006 general election, 33.8 percent; and 2004 Republican primary, 29.5 percent.

Those statistics and the votes to overturn Haley’s veto show legislators understand the Baby Boom’s requirement that South Carolina increase support for its elderly residents even if most seniors today are living independently far into their 80s and 90s. Legislators now know that relatively cheap home-based services are a bargain compared to state funding for expensive institutional care and that tens of thousands of their constituents struggle daily as caregivers to both their parents and their children.

Further direction could come were Haley and our new Lt. Gov. Yancey McLeod McGill to call a statewide meeting to hear from seniors, their advocates and the businesses that provide independent support to frail elderly citizens.

Right at this juncture, the future location and status of the Office on Aging is in question as this is the last election of an independent lieutenant governor. Haley should invite McLeod McGill into her cabinet meetings so she and South Carolina can begin thinking about such looming issues as what will be the response of her Department of Motor Vehicles and her Transportation Department when those 912,429 South Carolinians who are 60 and older begin hanging up their car keys?

Frank Adams is the retired deputy director of the Office of the Lieutenant Governor, having also served as a deputy director of its Office on Aging and as the director of public information for South Carolina’s Medicaid agency, the Department of Health and Human Services.  A former editor and reporter, he lives in Columbia.

To the editor:

I understand the frustrations with robocalls but voting for the opposite candidate is faulty thinking.  Yikes -- with that method of determining who to vote for could really yield dangerous results. We rely more and more on caller ID and our answering machine.  

-- Carol Tempel, James Island, S.C.

Drop us a line. 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:

• feedback@statehousereport.com

State Fair. Thumbs up to this year’s entertainment -- crowd favorites ZZ Top, MC Hammer, Shovels and Rope and the Marshall Tucker Band.

Caseloads. S.C. Department of Social Services workers carry higher caseloads than recommended, according to a national child welfare group. No surprise here after months of headlines of the agency’s meltdown. More.