You probably are like many other South Carolinians who haven’t heard of the little-known OPEB trust fund. The OPEB, Other Post Employment Benefits, trust funds consists of: a health insurance trust fund ($582.4 million) and a life and long-term disability ($35 million) trust fund. Currently, the State Treasurer manages the funds, whose unfunded liability was …
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Posted: July 20, 2012 by South Carolina Policy Council
Budget Vetoes: Were lawmakers even there?
THE BUDGET VETO “DEBATE” INVOLVED PRECIOUS LITTLE DEBATE If you followed the coverage of the governor’s budget vetoes – rallies outside the State House, op-eds denouncing specific vetoes – you might had the impression that the debate was contentious inside the legislative chambers. It wasn’t. Both House and Senate ran through 81 budget vetoes in …
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Posted: July 19, 2012 by South Carolina Policy Council
Veto Recap
LAWMAKERS REDUCED THE STATE BUDGET BY A TINY FRACTION OF A TINY FRACTION Lawmakers began public meetings on the state’s 2012-13 budget January 10 of this year – the first day of the legislative session. Yet the state didn’t have an operational budget until yesterday, July 18th. Indeed, they took so long to pass the …
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Posted: July 18, 2012 by South Carolina Policy Council
The Battle over Vetoes
SORRY, BUT TAXPAYERS LOST THE REAL BATTLE MONTHS AGO Yesterday the South Carolina House overrode the majority of Gov. Nikki Haley’s budget vetoes. The vetoes themselves were minimal – at $57.1 million, they amounted to less than one quarter of one percent of the total budget – but evidently they weren’t minimal enough for lawmakers. …
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Posted: July 12, 2012 by South Carolina Policy Council
What Did – and Didn’t – Gov. Haley Veto?
$57.1 MILLION SOUNDS LIKE A LOT. BUT IS IT? The release of the Governor Nikki Haley’s vetoes for the 2012-2013 budget has predictably been met with cries that the governor is a proponent of unnecessary austerity and wants to destroy or at least severely reduce vital state programs. Do the governor’s critics have a point? …
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Posted: June 29, 2012 by South Carolina Policy Council
The State Budget: Your priorities – or theirs?
YOU’RE A TAXPAYER? SORRY, YOU DIDN’T MAKE THE PRIORITY LIST This year, the General Assembly had more than $1 billion in new revenue to appropriate. The final version of the $23.5 billion spending plan, therefore, should be an excellent gauge of lawmakers’ priorities. Here’s what we know: Lawmakers created 250+ new full-time government employees; gave …
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Posted: June 1, 2012 by South Carolina Policy Council
Senate Budget Priorities: The Un-funded Tax Relief Reserve Fund
The Senate has passed their version of the budget, and it is now headed to the House for a final vote there. The budget includes an un-funded tax relief reserve fund in addition to other concerning expenditures. Lawmakers ignored the fund, and instead their priorities lie with questionable state agency budget increases, pork spending on …
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Posted: May 23, 2012 by South Carolina Policy Council
The Great Pork Debate
Tucked away at the tail end of part 1B of the budget bill is proviso 90.20, which deals with state non-recurring revenue: that is, revenue that’s only available for one year. Lawmakers have roughly $515 million dollars to appropriate in whatever way they see fit. Yesterday senators debated an amendment that would take some of …
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Posted: May 22, 2012 by South Carolina Policy Council
Ask Not, and Ye Shall Receive Anyway
Most state agencies submitted their budget requests back in November. (State law requires them to submit requests, but a few just never get around to it.) When an agency submits a request, it is saying, in effect: This is what we need to fulfill our mission. There is, of course, always the possibility that the …
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Posted: April 27, 2012 by South Carolina Policy Council
Health and Human Services Director agrees with the Policy Council
Our coverage of the health care debate, beginning in October of last year, dispelled the myth of a free market health exchange and highlighted the growing costs associated with the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. It appears the Director of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is on the same page as we …
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Posted: April 27, 2012 by South Carolina Policy Council
Who should manage the OPEB funds?
You probably are like many other South Carolinians who haven’t heard of the little-known OPEB trust fund. The OPEB, Other Post Employment Benefits, trust funds consists of: a health insurance trust fund ($582.4 million) and a life and long-term disability ($35 million) trust fund. Currently, the State Treasurer manages the funds, whose unfunded liability was …