The Nerve

Republicans swept all constitutional officer races in South Carolina again… but lost a U.S. Senate seat, a congressional seat, and 10 seats in the state House forfeiting a supermajority. Our most recent poll indicated that voters are concerned about affordability, and their votes reflect that. Read more about S.C. election results and the policies that determined them. scpolicycouncil.org/south_ca…

BREAKING: More Democrats (84%) support expanding the Education Scholarship Trust Fund in South Carolina than Republicans (72%).

BREAKING: New poll results show that 75% of South Carolina voters support eliminating the personal vehicle property tax

Civil asset forfeiture law in South Carolina ensures you are guilty until proven innocent. Your Constitutional right to due process does not apply to civil asset forfeiture. Law enforcement agencies are incentivized to seize property, as they are awarded the majority of the proceeds. The property value of seized assets is often less than the cost of litigation, so victims of government theft often give up. Read more from our latest report ⬇️ scpolicycouncil.org/civil_as…

Data centers require increased energy generation. Additional generation requires energy companies to build new power plants. If data centers require new power plant construction, they should pay the additional construction cost. That’s free market policy.

NEW CEO Introduction | SC Policy Council New South Carolina Policy Council CEO Robert Cathcart is introduced by outgoing CEO Michael Burris. (0:00) Intro (2:46) Robert Cathcart @r_cathcart @MichaelBurrisJr

One thing can be made certain from the recent earmarks ordeal…. ‼️ This is not the way the appropriations process should work! So this shouldn't happen again. ❓The question is: How do we avoid this in the future? Read more: scpolicycouncil.org/we_need_…

South Carolina can implement a transparent earmark request process for future budgets @SamAaronSC @DoughertyJC @foxcarolinanews

“While I understand the tuition mitigation dollars are intended to benefit South Carolina students, a growing share of the overall university enrollment is coming from out of state,” @SamAaronSC added. “That raises a fair question about why South Carolina taxpayers should continue to finance the rapid expansion of facilities that increasingly serve students from outside the state.” “South Carolinians are subsidizing this activity, even though a sizable percentage of people in this state did not attend college and will never attend college,” Aaron said. “I think the university needs to practice living within its means rather than returning to the Legislature every year requesting increased funding.”

Sam Aaron with the South Carolina Policy Council said the process should be open enough for the public to weigh in on individual projects. “There's a way that this process is supposed to unfold, and it's supposed to unfold under public scrutiny,” Aaron said. Aaron also raised concerns about moving the earmarks into a separate supplemental appropriations bill after the state budget has already been finalized. “I think there are concerns with a supplemental appropriations bill,” Aaron said. “I think that the budget process is not supposed to be a series of do-overs.” wltx.com/article/news/local/…

The South Carolina Policy Council announces new CEO scpolicycouncil.org/scpc_ann…

‼️ The S.C. House should move to override Veto 12 on the $150M to Scout Motors and Veto 13 on allowing state agencies to spend money without legislative approval. Read more ⬇️ scpolicycouncil.org/governor…

It is not the duty of hardworking South Carolinians to pay for cost overruns (by force) at an electric vehicle factory.

Earmarks would have never caused a budgetary issue if the South Carolina General Assembly CODIFIED INTO LAW a transparent earmark request process.

The good, the bad, and the ugly of South Carolina’s FY27 budget… 🚨 The Legislature votes tomorrow on a $44.4B spending plan! THE GOOD: • $324.9M in income tax relief, continuing the effort to lower South Carolina’s top income tax rate to 5.21%. • $81M expansion of the Homestead Exemption. • $90.5M for teacher salary increases. • $189.6M for bridge modernization. • Nearly $2.54B for SCDOT projects statewide (please use this efficiently). THE BAD: • Recurring spending grew to about $13.99B — roughly $160M above the South Carolina Policy Council’s Responsible Budget benchmark (increase by pop + inflation). • $29.1M in new tuition mitigation, which SCPC argues shifts the cost of rising college tuition from students to taxpayers instead of addressing the underlying costs. • $34M in General Fund money + 30 new positions for SNAP administration. • The budget adds a total of 1,018 new state employees across all funding sources. THE UGLY: • About $309M in legislative earmarks are being separated from the main budget, with the final amounts to be determined through a separate process. • Lawmakers could be asked to approve the General Appropriations Bill while major spending decisions remain unresolved. SCPC's bottom line: taxpayers deserve to know exactly how their money will be spent before lawmakers vote on the budget.

Is the S.C. Legislature attempting to circumvent the governor’s line-item veto to force through hundreds of millions in earmark spending? Read more: scpolicycouncil.org/budget_h…

Our investigative arm @thenervesc has uncovered via Freedom of Information Act that S.C. agencies were granted an additional $3 BILLION to spend after last year’s budget was approved. Visit thenerve.org for more primary reporting.